Gone, but not Forgotten
by Treeja
Summary: In one moment, the newest class of Hope's Peak is attending their entrance ceremony, and in the next, they find themselves in an old-fashioned mansion with no sense of why they're there... or how to leave. While desperately trying to escape, the SHSL Ghost Whisperer and her classmates begin to encounter the dead more personally than any of them were prepared for.
1. Day 0: One Last Taste of the Outside

"That's her—the last one. We'll need her, too."

"Her? Seriously?"

"Yeah. You've seen her on TV before, haven't you?"

"Yes, but… she looks different. It's because she's wearing the school uniform and she's not on camera, isn't it?"

"Mmhmm."

"It's strange to think of her as a normal high school girl. But I guess it's strange to think of _any_ of these people as normal high schoolers."

"But it doesn't matter if they're normal or not. Remember why we're here. Don't start thinking of them as kids."

"Right, right. Just talents. Not kids. Not him, or her, or him, or _her._ "

In the crowd watching the opening ceremony for Hope's Peak Academy, these whispers were just one conversation lost along the sea of many others.

* * *

The school auditorium was huge, especially compared to the cramped one in her local high school. Huge enough to fit teachers, parents, students, and a small army of reporters and other onlookers—you didn't need to be related to a student at Hope's Peak to be interested in their stories. Indeed, the audience for the commencement ceremony of the newest class numbered in the hundreds for a group of sixteen students...

Fortunately, large crowds like this were something _she_ was already used to. The last one, _she_ took her place at the center of the auditorium stage, head and shoulders just barely poking over the podium and microphone. A tall, middle-aged man stood next to her, giving an approving smile.

"Good afternoon. My name is Mochizuki Nanako." Her voice was surprisingly low-pitched for her small body, and she enunciated every word. "I'm sixteen years old, and this will be my first year at Hope's Peak. And I must say, this school is one of the most incredible things I've ever laid my eyes on—at least, in the realm of the living!"

That last line was delivered with everything short of an obvious wink, and the audience laughed politely. Nanako walked out from behind the podium, bowed deeply to them, then took her seat at the end of the row of chairs onstage, next to her classmates. No, this certainly hadn't been the largest crowd she'd ever addressed, nor the longest or most difficult thing she'd ever said in front of one-not by far. Still, though, she felt a bit frazzled… she was at Hope's Peak! After everything, she'd never imagined she would be _here._

"Thank you, thank you. It's a privilege and an honor to be hosting the academy's very first Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer! Now, that concludes the end of our introductions. Let's hear it for our sixteen new students one last time!"

While she was calming her nerves, it seemed the tall man-the school's headmaster- taken the spot behind the podium. He beamed as the audience gave one last round of applause. "Thank you, thank you for coming! I have the privilege today of introducing not only these bright young minds, but myself as well. I graduated from this very academy seventeen years ago with my own bright future in robotics, and joined the teaching staff soon afterwards. Then, after working as an administrator up until last year, I was given the privilege to lead all the gifted students and staff members here…"

The headmaster was charismatic enough, and his excitement was undeniable, but Nanako could already tell this wasn't going to be a short or especially exciting commencement speech. That was fine-she didn't mind a little bit of time to look around. The hundreds of people filling the seats of the auditorium were the hardest to ignore, but she managed to sneak a few glances down the row of her classmates. Some were paying rapt attention, others were _trying_ to, and at least one seemed to be losing a battle to sleep. Nanako couldn't blame them-between the wall of thank-you's and the well-meaning but awfully generic hopes for the future of this upcoming class, she couldn't help but tune the speech out herself.

That was, until the headmaster used the phrase _field trip._ Nanako-and many of her classmates, she noticed-suddenly perked up at this relevant and far more interesting information.

"...About an hour north of our fine school, it's one of the oldest educational institutions in Japan. In fact, it dates back to the Heian Period! We hope this trip will give our students the opportunity to appreciate the vast history and importance of education in this country. And afterwards, we'll be visiting the city's flower park for a cherry blossom viewing, to help the class form the important bonds of friendship that will be guiding them throughout their own education here." At that, the headmaster turned back to the row of students, nearly all of whom showed their approval in some polite way that very much hinted _a field trip sounded far better than sitting up here for much longer._

And he seemed to realize that. The headmaster gave his final round of congratulations to the students, their families, the staff, and just about everyone else in the auditorium, then moved to the back of the stage as the audience began to pour out of the auditorium.

"Thank you for your patience. We're going to wait until security has cleared out most of the audience," the headmaster said, addressing the restless group of students. "A simple measure to make sure we aren't mobbed by fans and reporters, that's all. In the meantime, you can all stand up and stretch your legs before being escorted to the living spaces."

Chatter broke out among the students. A few jumped to their feet the second they were allowed to do so, while others lounged in their chairs, finally free of most of the prying eyes of the audience.

Nanako still sat in her chair, swinging her short legs as she continued to look around. Hope's Peak, Hope's Peak... if nothing else, the school surely lived up to its name in size, something that became even clearer as the auditorium emptied and the few stragglers near the back of the room were left stark against the sea of empty chairs.

"Hey, Mochizuki-san?" The classmate sitting next to her nudged her shoulder and nodded towards a pair of people moving rapidly down the main aisle of the auditorium, straight towards the stage. "Who do you think those people are?"

"Reporters, I guess. The headmaster _did_ warn us about them." They were something she was used to, given the nature of her own life spent on TV. "They're a little weird, though. Usually they'd have cameras or something to record our voices with, or... something to write with...?" _Weird_ was coming unprepared. _Sketchy_ was slipping past crowd-controlling security and walking towards the stage. C _oncerning_ was doing both, while the headmaster didn't even seem to realize they were approaching. The student next to her stood up, and she did the same, and... then, she wasn't quite sure.

Nanako didn't remember much after that.

* * *

 ** _Gone, but Not Forgotten_ Cast List**

Asami Kurogane, SHSL Roller Derby Skater (Crimson Spider Lily)  
Asuka Shimizu, SHSL Tutor (AnonChan1)  
Henry Wilson, SHSL Historian (aidanator800)  
Hinawa Hikaru, SHSL Sniper (irwegwert)  
Hyun-ki Kennedy, SHSL Chemist (Monokenny and Benji)  
Ichika Watari, SHSL Stained Glass Artist (Crimson Spider Lily)  
Musubu Kaminaga, SHSL Sleuth (TheRoseShadow21)  
Nanako Mochizuki, SHSL Ghost Whisperer (Treeja)  
Nelly Hitotsuki, SHSL Antiquarian (mayurie)  
Nozomi Tachibana, SHSL Shrine Maiden (Lupus Overkill)  
Saito Himitsu, SHSL Conspiracy Theorist (liammarklh88)  
Shin'ichi Katou, SHSL Showrunner (Richard Conway)  
Tsumugu Kaminaga, SHSL Science Journalist (TheRoseShadow21)  
Viktoriya Vikhrov, SHSL Podpolkóvnik/Lieutenant Colonel (vixo)  
Yuki Tempura, SHSL Itamae (Abitat Eco)  
Yusei Shiroma, SHSL Thanatologist (Maestro Infinite)

Thank you so much to everybody who sent in characters, whether they ended up in the story or not! There were a lot of close decisions to make, especially near the end of the submission period—I genuinely enjoyed every character I received!


	2. Day 1: Convergence in the Manse, Part 1

" _Wow! There she is!"_

" _Wooo, Mochizuki!"_

" _I know he's there, I know he's trying to talk to me! Read me, today, Nanako!"_

" _Shush! You know it has to_ come _to her! She can't just take requests!"_

 _In the crowd watching the taping of_ Medium Mochizuki _, these shouts were just some of many lost along the sea of many others._

 _The building where the talk show was taped was pretty big_ _, probably around the size of an average high school auditorium._ _Large enough to fit the regulars, recent mourners, curious first-timers, and people who just happened to be in the area_ _—you didn't need to be a fan of the show to want to hear what all the hype was about. Indeed, the audience on this lovely morning numbered almost two-hundred…_

 _Fortunately, crowds like this were something she was used to. At the peak of the cheering, Nanako walked out from behind the curtains and took her place at center stage, grabbing the microphone from the lone stand._

" _Good mooooorning, Maaaaaaatsue! Who's ready to journey with me into the afterlife?" The line was delivered with the same energy she used every Sunday morning, and the audience roared with applause._

 _Her clothing, also, was a variation on the same purple-and-green color scheme she used every morning: a plain, dark green jacket over a plum, knee-length dress. Not so somber as to pull the mood down, but muted enough to effectively segue to the emotional parts, where she'd share words of comfort from someone's dearly departed._

" _Let's get started, shall we? Today I'm really picking up a name beginning with 'Ah.' Ah… Ah…" Of course, everyone in Japan knew somebody with a name like that, and so it stood that a few, at least, knew somebody_ dead _with a name like that. The audience responded as they always did, some jumping wildly out of their seats, trying to catch Nanako's eye, and the rest watching with rapt attention to see what she would do next._

" _Oh, oh, I'm getting the rest… Ah… Ah-yah… someone with a name beginning with 'Aya?'" And still, more of the crowd sat down, with the few people left standing fervently waving, hopping, calling her name._

" _Ah, and the last part. Ah… yah…kah?" Nanako froze as she said those last few syllables, her until-then constant smile dropping off her face. "Ayaka."_

 _And at that name, the rest of the audience sat down at once, silent, stone-still. An impossibly long moment passed, and one woman at the center of the front row stood up slowly. She looked quite a bit like Nanako, and entirely normal, save for her blue-tinged face, bulging eyes, and the rope tied around her neck. It trailed down past her legs, onto the ground, toward the front, onto the stage, and into—_

 _Nanako's hands. She looked down, and she wasn't holding the microphone anymore, but the end of the rope. Startled, she tried to throw it down, but she couldn't—her hands simply wouldn't move. She looked down the length of the rope and back to the woman in the audience, who, at this point, was staring directly at Nanako. "Ayaka?"_

" _Have you lost a loved one recently?" the woman asked. Her voice was the same as Nanako's, without the showmanship or excitement._

" _Ayaka…" It was strange, it was pathetic, it was terrifying, but just as she couldn't release the rope, Nanako found she couldn't say anything but repeat that name._

" _It's alright, Nanako. Everyone here has. That's why they've come to see you. You'll bring them closure, won't you?"_

" _Ayaka, I..."_

" _You know what you have to do, don't you?"_

 _Nanako shook her head._

" _You have to wake up." The woman's voice was entirely different, all of a_ _sudden_ _. Lower, louder… manlier?_

" _Wait, what? What are you—" The change in voice had snapped Nanako back, given her controls of her faculties again. She opened her hands to drop the rope she'd been holding, only to see the rope was no longer there._

" _Wake up. Wake up…"_

" _Wait, wait—"_

* * *

"Wake up… wake up… please?"

And she did. Forcefully dragged back into reality, Nanako was suddenly and acutely aware of a number of things. First, everything _hurt._ Not unbearably, but in an achy way that suggested she'd slept wrong… on her entire body. Second, and likely related, she was on the ground. Face-up, lying on… wood? Laminate? Marble? Something hard, uncomfortable, and certainly not meant for sleeping of any kind. Third, and most clearly, she realized there was a hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her awake.

"Urgh…"

"Ah, you're—please, excuse me. Allow me to give you some space, Mochizuki-san." Whoever had been shaking her moved back a bit, and Nanako sat up slowly, vision a bit blurred and a dull pounding in her head. "Are you alright?"

"'Alright' is a strong word, but… I think I'm okay." She rubbed her eyes and took her first good look at the person kneeling beside her. "You know my name? Wait, aren't you—oh, I remember! You were sitting next to me at the ceremony, weren't you… Himitsu-san?"

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Saito Himitsu, SHSL Conspiracy Theorist**

Hasn't proven anything... _yet_.

* * *

"Yes, ma'am. Himitsu Saito, at your service," and he gave a polite bow, at least, as much as one could while on the ground.

Nanako wondered, briefly, if she was still dreaming. Then she decided her brain probably couldn't make up such a boy. The white-shirt-black-pants dress ensemble, yes, and even the messy silver hair, which was the same color as her own. But the fedora, the pencil-as-an-accent, and _especially_ the accessories… she wasn't sure if she'd ever _seen_ a pocket watch in real life.

"While I'm glad we're both immediately safe, Mochizuki-san, I'm afraid I cannot necessarily say the same for the future," Saito continued. "Especially since, at this moment, I have absolutely no idea where we are."

"Well… it definitely isn't the auditorium," Nanako observed, unhelpfully. "Do you think we're on the grounds of somewhere?"

"Of Hope's Peak Academy? Mmm, that's highly doubtful. I cased almost every inch of the school a week before the entrance ceremony, and I don't remember a place like this."

Nanako thought for a moment. "Wait. Isn't, like, half of the school inaccessible to non-students? We were only let into our rooms a few days before the ceremony to unpack…"

"Yes, well... It never hurts to investigate thoroughly. We've all heard about Hope's Peak from the news and the internet, but, really, how much of that can you trust?" Saito asked, seriously.

Nanako didn't really know how to answer that, so she didn't. "Well, if we aren't at Hope's Peak, then…"

* * *

 **Room Discovered: Entry Hall**

For greeting esteemed guests, honored visitors, and amnesiac students.

* * *

For the first time since she woke up, Nanako took a dedicated look around the spacious room. The walls seemed to be elaborately-decorated stone, though she didn't know enough about architecture or masonry to be more sure of anything than that. A chandelier hung from the ceiling and lamps lined the wall—there was electricity, that was probably a good sign. She was right about the floor, at least. Wood, freshly polished, and squeaky if she put a bit of weight on it. A few feet away from her lay a long, ornate rug spread from almost one end of the room to the other.

"I think _that_ would have been a bit more comfortable to wake up on," said Nanako, a bit too shocked and confused about their current situation to muster up the joking resentment needed for such a line.

"Personally, I'm a bit more interested at what's at the end of the carpet." Saito gestured over at what he was talking about: a large, decorated wooden door. "I'm not entirely sure where it leads, but it seems promising, wouldn't you say?"

It was practically palatial in nature—they both knew a door that large could only lead one place: outside.

Nanako nodded fervently and made her way to her feet, Saito doing the same. It was only when they were both standing that she noticed he had a solid nine inches of height on her. She'd probably take a moment to marvel at his six-feet-tallness if she hadn't spent all her day's marvels on the past five minutes. Instead, she focused her attention on the door, and made her way over with the conspiracy theorist.

And as she did, she heard a _caw_ from the corner of the room.

They both turned, startled, to see the source of the noise, and found it right away: a single crow, perched atop a rafter near one of the corners of the room.

"A… bird?" Nanako asked.

"It would appear so," Saito replied.

"Huh, that's kind of strange," said Nanako, and then she made her way up to the door. It was large and elegant, with two panels that looked to either swing out or slide open, and carved with the same patterns that decorated the rug. Fortunately, it only seemed to be secured with a simple latch, which Nanako quickly got to work messing with. Saito, meanwhile, seemed a bit less convinced, glancing between Nanako, the door, and the crow on the rafter.

"'Kind of strange?' It's staring at us, Mochizuki-san."

"It's a crow, Himitsu-san." Said crow squawked again as she said those words. "I don't think it's staring, I think it's just… being a bird."

"Or, it's a plant… by the government, or worse! An animal trained to mimic human speech could act as a spy and repeat our words—crows are quite intelligent, you know. Their brains are developed enough to identify and recall human faces, so even if our exact conversation isn't being recorded—" His pitch and pace grew higher and more frantic as he continued on about the potential of corvids, but he stopped, suddenly, as he seemed to notice this. He sighed, and took a deep breath. "Your title is 'Ghost Whisperer,' is it not? How can you be skeptical with an occupation such as that?"

"Because," Nanako answered, still fiddling with the latch, "I talk to ghostly humans. It's a bird, and it's alive. But, I don't typically deal with birds whether they're dead or—ugh!"

She shoved the latch aside in frustration, and it clattered back against the wooden door. "This isn't working for me at all. Himitsu-san, do you know how to—Himitsu-san?"

He was ignoring her entirely at this point, looking up at the crow in the rafters. Only, there wasn't a single crow there anymore, there were three. And they were all squawking as the first one had been, but constantly.

" _Something_ is happening up there," Saito said.

"Are you sure it's not just… birds, doing... bird activities?" Saito tilted his head at that, and Nanako clarified quickly. "You know, when they're hanging out on telephone wires, or just sort of hopping around city streets? You don't think _those_ birds are up to anything suspicious, do you?"

" _Well…"_

"Actually, you know what?" Nanako interrupted him. "I would be more than happy to discuss this with you… outside. Where there will be _many_ more birds doing non-suspicious things, like the ones up there." The ones which, at this point, numbered five rather than three. "Either way, don't you want to try leaving before worrying about something else?"

Saito looked down at her, unimpressed, and Nanako looked back up at him, smiling broadly. After a moment, he sighed once again. "Very well. The latch, then?"

"It wasn't working at all for me… I think we might just try forcing it open," Nanako said, casually. After all, what was a little breaking and exiting after waking up on the ground in a room she'd never seen before? Certainly not the worst thing that had happened to her all day.

"Mochizuki-san, are you advocating that we break down this locked door?"

Nanako raised her eyebrows. "I'm sorry, didn't you just tell me about how you trespassed into our _school_?"

"...Touché."

They both moved to try to force the door open, but the second Nanako's hands touched the wood of the door, the ever-growing flock of crows suddenly evolved into a storm of screaming, swarming birds that darted about the rafters. Nanako finally recognized _this_ behavior as wildly suspicious, even for birds, and withdrew her arms quickly.

Saito, who looked more than a bit relieved, did the same. "I don't think attempting to open this door any further would be prudent," he said, raising his voice to be heard over the din of the _caws_.

"I think you might be right!" Nanako called back, to the boy a solid two feet away from her. "But what do we do now?" She then made the terrible, unfortunate mistake of leaning back against the door.

The crows did not like that she leaned back against the door.

At once, the birds were diving towards both of them, swooping back and forth, grabbing tufts of their hair in their talons and pecking at their heads as they flew past.

"Ah—ow! Why? Come on, we didn't even try to push it open!" Nanako cried, shielding her head with her arms and unsuccessfully trying to bat some of their flying assailants away.

"Mochizuki-san, if I may—agh!—make a observation, I think our proximity to the door alone has riled the crows!"

"Okay!"

"So, perhaps it would be best if we relocated ourselves!"

"Good idea! Where?"

While most of the crows in the room seemed to be focused on harassing the pair by the door, enough were left flitting around the rafters in the rest of the room that Nanako was _quite_ ready to vacate the premises.

"There!" Yelled Saito, and after ducking out of the way of a particularly dedicated corvid, Nanako saw where he was pointing: another door on the opposite side of the room, far less ornate, but also far less surrounded by attacking crows, which Nanako very much appreciated about it.

They both made a break for other door, the crows pursuing them for a few seconds but backing off as it became clear they had no intention of trying to break down the large door. Saito reached the door first (unsurprising, given how much longer his legs were), slid it open, beckoned Nanako through, then ducked in behind her, slamming the door behind them with an unnecessary but understandable amount of force.

"Okay, okay," started Nanako, hands on her knees, catching her breath. "F-first of all, thank you, Himitsu-san."

"Of course," answered Saito.

"Second: What?!" She stood up, adrenaline slowly draining away and leaving pure disbelief in its place. "What—what was that?" Nanako gestured emphatically at the door they'd just escaped from. "Where, is _this?_ " She, again, waved her arms to indicate the room they were currently standing in.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: South Hall**

Good for getting from one room to another.

* * *

"And third," she began, "How—"

She gestured to a door on the other side of the hallway a few feet away from them—or at least, it had just been a door, a moment ago. In the midst of Nanako's rant, it seemed, someone had opened the door and stepped into the doorway.

"How," Nanako corrected, with the ease of a daytime television talkshow host, "Are you?"

"Um. I'm fine, thank you," they said, clearly unsure of what they'd just walked into.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Asuka Shimizu, SHSL Tutor**

Those who _can_ , do. Those who _can't_ , teach. Those who _do and teach_ , tutor.

* * *

The first thing Nanako noticed about them was their height—and she imagined Saito might have seen the same, as Asuka was a half-foot shorter than even Nanako. They and the conspiracy theorist may as well have been in different atmospheric layers. Everything else about them seemed… well, also kind of cute: dark brown skin and dark, fluffy hair that curled over their oversized purple sweater, a brown messenger bag strapped around their chest—and purple nail polish! That was fun.

"I heard a commotion out here and wanted to see what had happened," Asuka continued. "Are you two alright?"

"Alright is a _strong_ word," Nanako answered. "We just escaped from a flock of killer crows."

"You were attacked? Oh my god, that sounds terrible!" Asuka cried, genuine concern for two perfect strangers showing through in their voice.

"Actually," Saito cut in, "I don't believe that's entirely true."

"Are you sure, Himitsu-san? I mean, I've been wrong a _lot_ today for someone who hasn't even been awake for half an hour, but I was there, and those birds did seem _pretty_ angry."

"I mean, I don't think they were trying to _kill_ us," Saito clarified. "Think about it. Are you seriously injured?"

Nanako did a quick self-assessment, which, to be fair, she _probably_ should have done immediately after they escaped from the room. Her hair was definitely messed up—she'd have to redo her single, long braid—and there were a few spots on her scalp and shoulders where errant pecks and scratches had landed, but there was certainly no lasting damage—or even anything especially painful. "Well, not _physically…_ " Nanako conceded.

"With their powerful beaks and sheer numbers, that murder of crows could have easily… well, _murdered_ both of us. But they didn't—rather, they simply harassed us until we stopped investigating the door and left the room. We can conclude a couple things from this: one, that some entity—the birds, or whoever is controlling them—do not want us to leave from that door. And two, that same entity has a vested interest in keeping us alive—at least, for now. And as to the identity of that entity… well, I'd imagine it's the government, or a large corporation, trapping and spying on us with the latest bird-based biotechnology! I knew it… I knew Tokyo's rising crow population had basis in was a result of extensive breeding to create an artificially-augmented super-crow hybrid!"

Asuka, who'd been gravely nodding along with most of Saito's assessment, stopped when he said that. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You know what? Let's—let's put a pin in that last part, actually," Nanako cut in. "Especially since we haven't had a proper introduction. I remember seeing you at the ceremony, but I don't think any of us formally met."

"Oh, that totally slipped my mind with everything going on! I'm so sorry—my name is Shimizu Asuka, and my title is Super High School Level Tutor. May I ask who you both are?"

"I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer."

"That certainly sounds exciting," said Asuka, politely, if not _just_ a bit confusedly.

"And our friend here," Nanako continued, "Is Himitsu Saito, the Super High School Level… Ornithologist, isn't that right?" She asked, grinning.

" _Conspiracy theorist_ ," Saito corrected, and then turned his attention to Asuka, as well. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

"Oh… sorry, ma'am isn't really…" Asuka trailed off.

"My apologies. Sir?"

"No, that's not quite right, either."

Saito thought for a moment. "Captain?"

Asuka shrugged. "Captain works."

"Excellent. It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain. I only wish we could do so under more pleasant circumstances," Saito said, not missing a beat.

Asuka turned back into the room they'd just been inside, and looked around. "Hmm… well, I don't think there are any of those crows in here, if you two want to come into the—what did she call it? The lounge?"

* * *

 **Room Discovered: Lounge**

That's what it's called in _Clue,_ at least. Some might call it a sitting room or a living room. Then again, some might call it _Cluedo._

* * *

A quick peek inside showed a room not quite ornate as the entry hall—but not by much. Half the ground was wood floor and the other half tatami, with western-style sofas and sitting mats arranged around a few appropriately decorated coffee tables. Among the wall opposite them was an unlit fireplace and two huge, wooden wardrobes, one of which was open.

Nanako and Saito followed them into the lounge, both of them pleased to see that the room was, in fact, free of birds of any variety.

"I woke up a little bit ago, on one of those couches over there," Asuka said, pointing to a fancy, cabriole-styled sofa.

"You got a _couch?_ Himitsu-san and I woke up on the wood floor."

Saito coughed quietly. "Actually, Mochizuki-san, I didn't inform you previously, but I _was_ originally on the rug…"

" _Un-_ believable," Nanako said, in mock indignation, dramatically smacking her hand onto her chest. "Now I _know_ somebody has it out for me." To her satisfaction, that seemed to get a smile out of Asuka, even if it was a small one.

"Yes, it was me and…" The tutor looked around the room. "Kaminaga-san," they called, "are you still here?"

The wardrobe with the open doors rattled a bit, and… out stepped a person.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Musubu Kaminaga, SHSL Sleuth**

And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for this meddling highschooler.

* * *

Another far-taller-than-Nanako girl, she wore denim dungarees over a short-sleeved pink shirt, pink-and-white-striped thigh-high socks, and a pale pink bow secured carefully atop her violet bob of hair. What really stuck out to Nanako, though, was her long, beige trench coat that clashed _gloriously_ with the rest of her outfit.

"Like I said, Shimizu-san, you should stick with 'Musubu' for me," she said.

"But, you're using my last name."

"Right," Musubu continued, brushing what Nanako assumed was wardrobe-dust off of her shoulders, "But it's going to get really confusing when we find my brother, if everyone uses our last name for both of us—oh!" She seemed to suddenly notice Nanako and Saito trailing behind Asuka. "Did you find more people?"

"Mmmhmm! They were in the room across the hall," said Asuka. "They only woke up a little bit ago, just like us…"

"We were also attacked by birds!" Nanako piped up, aptly summarizing her last few minutes of consciousness.

Musubu walked over to the three, looking more confused by the moment. "Birds? Inside? How strange…"

"Before we got swarmed, there were just a few hanging out in the rafters. Kind of up—ugh! Like that!" Nanako took three giant steps back and pointed towards the ceiling of the lounge, where a single crow was perched atop a ceiling beam. "When did that get here?!"

Asuka and Musubu turned to look up at the bird, while Saito kept his attention on Nanako. "Mochizuki-san, wait! The crows in the last room didn't attack us until we threatened to damage property—and even then, we were given ample warning."

"Ample warning? I don't know if I'd call a bunch of squawking _warning,_ " Nanako grumbled, but stepped forward to rejoin her peers nevertheless. "I'm keeping my eye on that thing, and if any more show up, I'm headed back into the hall."

"Did it just show up? Wow, I didn't hear or see it fly in," remarked Asuka, as they and Musubu turned back to the group as well.

Musubu seemed particularly thoughtful. "Where did these crows come from? How did they get inside a building that—as far as I've seen—doesn't have any windows? And what's their purpose?" An expression of determination crossed the sleuth's face. "Well, gang, looks like we have another mystery on our hands!"

"Another mystery?" asked Asuka.

 _Gang?_ thought Nanako.

"Well, of course," said Musubu. "There's still the matter of why _we're_ all here, and how we got here, and where _here_ is, and if the others are here, too, and where they are…" She nodded to herself. "At this point, I think it would be easier to count how many mysteries there _aren't_. But, at least we can solve one right now!" She gestured to Nanako and Saito. "Who are you two?"

"My name is Himitsu Saito, ma'am, the Super High School Level Conspiracy Theorist. A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Saito said, polite as always.

"Conspiracy Theorist? Well, a conspiracy might be behind why we're all here, so let us know if you have any ideas," said Musubu, and Nanako noticed Saito's face light up almost imperceptibly. "And you?" She asked, turning to Nanako.

"I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer. It's good to meet you," Nanako said.

"Nice to meet you too, Mochizuki-san. I'm Kaminaga Musubu, but like I told Shimizu-san, just stick with 'Musubu,' okay? If we're here, and you two are here… that means my brother is probably somewhere around here, too, and that's just going to be confusing."

"I can do that… Musubu-san." Okay, calling someone by their first name just after she'd met them _was_ a little strange to her, but Nanako could probably get used to it. "And, sorry, I meant to ask this earlier, but I got kind of distracted by our friend up there—" She jerked a thumb at the crow, who still sat alone and unmoving atop the beam— "What were you doing inside the closet?"

"Investigating, of course," answered Musubu.

"Of course," repeated Nanako, sincerely, because on the scale of strange things that had happened in the past half hour, it barely even registered.

"It pays to be thorough in situations like this… but as far as I can tell, this room is pretty normal. _Weirdly_ normal. The fireplace is stocked with wood and there are some hearth matches sitting on top of the mantle, and while the wardrobes are big—big enough for me to fit into, like you saw—all they stored were things like folded-up blankets and board games."

"Blankets? Board games?" asked Nanako. "What kind of place is this? That's so... homey."

"To be fair, we don't really know this _isn't_ someone's house," said Asuka.

"Mmhmm! That's one mystery Shimizu-san and I made a little bit of progress on," Musubu said, brightly. "Even if it's _just_ a little bit. The last thing either of us remember is the entrance ceremony for Hope's Peak... but we definitely aren't at Hope's Peak anymore."

"Yeah, Himitsu-san and I—and by that, I really just mean Himitsu-san—figured that out, too," said Nanako. "Just... out of curiosity, what was your reasoning?"

"Weeeelllll," began Musubu. "Being the SHSL Sleuth and all, I figured it would be a good idea to lead our School Detectives' Club in a thorough investigation of the grounds a few weeks before the entrance ceremony. There's no building like this anywhere on campus, or any rooms like this listed on any maps or information about the school."

"Seriously? Did I miss something?" Nanako nudged Saito in the arm, but immediately realized it hadn't been necessary—he'd lit up with interest as soon as Musubu finished talking. It looked like they were finding common ground pretty quickly. Well... _they_ were, at least. "Were we all supposed to do our own semi-legal canvassing before the entrance ceremony? Was that some hidden entrance exam I accidentally threw away with the envelope holding the invitation to the school?"

"It's always a good idea to get a good idea of where you're going to be spending the next few years, isn't it?" asked Musubu. "Besides, it was for practical purposes, but it's also one last big event from the founder of the club, and a way to welcome back an... honorary member who'd returned after a few months." She paused, then started in again quickly. "But we only looked around the places guests were _technically_ allowed to visit, so there was nothing semi-legal about it. Just kind of... discouraged."

"Ahh, I see. Don't know where I would have gotten _that_ idea," said Nanako. She looked directly up at Saito. Saito did not look back down.

"Um, as for me," Asuka said, breaking Nanako from her Significant Look. "My two older brothers attended Hope's Peak Academy. I visited them a few times while they were in high school, so I was already pretty familiar with the campus."

"Oh. That... makes a lot more sense," said Nanako, plainly. Maybe she was finding some common ground after all. "So, that's one possibility down and... what, the rest of Japan to go?"

"The rest of the _world_ , to go," Saito corrected her. "We were unconscious for an indeterminate amount of time, and we've woken up in a completely unfamiliar place. Who's to say we haven't been taken to an island elsewhere in the Pacific? Or Europe? Or Africa? Or as far away as—"

"I think Mochizuki-san is has a point. Just look at the floor," Musubu cut in, before Saito could rile himself up too much. She pointed to the other half of the room, lined with tightly woven straw mats. "That's tatami, Himitsu-san. It isn't typically used outside of Japan, even in other parts of Asia."

"A... valid observation," Saito conceded, the vaguely frantic, conspiratorial tone draining from his voice... before it picked right back up again. "Though, who's to say someone hasn't erected a structure with traditionally Japanese flooring with the intent of tricking us into believing we haven't left the country? With no means of contacting the outside and no windows with which to physically see it, we certainly can't dismiss that possibility..."

"Oh! You're right, too, Himitsu-san." Musubu remarked.

"I—pardon me?"

"In an unfamiliar situation like this, we can't afford to make assumptions, especially before we've gathered all our information! Even outlandish-seeming ideas are worth considering."

"Oh, that's... t-thank you, Musubu-san," stumbling just slightly over his words for the first time since Nanako had officially met him, which, to be fair, had not been that long ago.

"Don't get that a lot, huh?" Nanako muttered.

"Not from people who've put actual thought into my words," Saito replied, at the same volume.

"Uh, right then," said Musubu, who'd been close enough to hear that whole exchange anyways. She and Asuka looked at one another, then she spoke up again. "I think it might be a good idea to split up and look for clues. The hallway where Mochizuki-san and Himitsu-san came in from might be a good place to start, since I already checked around all of this room. Two of us can head right, two of us can head left, take a look around, and meet back here in... I don't know, thirty minutes?"

"Will everyone be able to keep track of the time?" Saito asked. "I myself possess a watch, but short of counting the seconds yourselves, I'm not sure how anyone else will be able to tell what time it is—"

A loud squawk rang out from the crow perched by the ceiling, and everyone in the group looked over to the bird, save for Nanako, who was busy trying to hide behind Saito. The bird squawked again, and then, in a high-pitched, monotone voice, emitted the following words:

 _"CURRENT TIME: NINE-TWENTY SEVEN A.M."_

The group was completely silent for a good five seconds, trying to process what had just happened, when Nanako peeked out from behind Saito's back. "Okay, what the _heck_? Did... did that thing just _talk?_ "

"I... I think it did!" said Asuka, in disbelief.

"Incredible... it seems they've already successfully implemented the biotechnological augmentations and selective breeding I mentioned earlier—do you know what the government or sufficiently large corporation could do with this power?" said Saito, who sounded more impressed than surprised.

"Hey, now," Musubu chided, calmly, apparently taking the whole talking crow thing in stride. "Remember, no assumptions yet."

"Of course, Musubu-san."

"So... we should look all look around and then try to meet back here at ten AM, bird standard time?" asked Nanako, still reeling over how that was a sentence that she'd been able to say in _any_ context.

"That sounds good to me," said Musubu. "Shimizu-san and I will head down to the right end of the hallway, and Mochizuki-san and Himitsu-san can head down to the left—"

"Forgive me for interrupting you, Musubu-san," Saito said, interrupting her, "But might I accompany you, instead?"

"Oh, uh..." Musubu looked at Asuka, who shrugged and nodded, then back at Saito. "Sure, if you'd like."

"Thank you. There are matters of this situation I wish to discuss with a fellow investigator such as yourself."

Nanako sighed with mock anguish, melodramatically putting the back of her hand to her forehead. "After everything we've been through, Himitsu-san, you'd leave me?" Asuka giggled a bit, and she continued. "And here I thought we _had_ something."

"I will cherish the memory of our being attacked by crows forever, Mochizuki-san," Saito said, entirely deadpan. "We'll certainly have to reminisce over it in..." he flipped open his pocket watch, instead of utilizing their newly-found bird-based time system. "Thirty-one minutes." Then, he turned to Musubu. "Shall we be off, then?"

"Fine, fine," said Nanako, as the four of them made their way to the door. "You two go ahead. While you're gone, Shimizu-san and I will put our heads together and solve this whole mystery, birds and all." She laid her hand gently on Asuka's shoulder, appreciating the softness of their knit sweater. "Isn't that right, Shimizu-san?"

"Well, we'll probably find _something,_ " Asuka offered.

" _Something_ , it is."

"Actually... before we leave, can I make one more request?" asked Musubu, stopping as she reached the hallway. "We definitely need to find out what's going on here, but most immediately, I'm worried about my brother. If we're all here, that means other people from the entrance ceremony probably are, too." She looked away for a moment, then looked to Nanako and Asuka. "His name is Tsumugu, and he's my twin, so... he looks a lot like me. If you run into him before we do, can you all try to find me as soon as possible? I really want to make sure he's alright."

"Oh, that's..." Nanako wasn't quite expecting genuine concern after her own display of sheer farce. "Yeah, of course. We'll definitely keep an eye out for you," she said, and Asuka nodded with her.

The relief was visible on Musubu's face. "Thank you both so much. Remember, ten' o clock, sooner if you find Tsumugu." Then she turned to Saito. "Shall we, Himitsu-san?"

"After you, ma'am."

The two headed down the hallway, leaving Asuka and Nanako at the door of the lounge. "We should get going, too," said the tutor.

Nanako cleared her throat, then gave a wide sweeping gesture towards the end of the hallway. "After you, Captain."

* * *

 **Guys, you've all submitted some _amazing_ characters. Like, seriously, I've thoroughly enjoyed every single one I've read! While the submission deadline isn't for another week** **—and I _definitely_ encourage anybody who still wants to send an OC in to do so—I couldn't help but write part one of five of the prologue!**

 **A full list of characters will be posted when the submission date rolls around and I... actually have the list to post. In the meantime, please enjoy this prologue to the prologue, and thank you so much for reading and submitting! :)**


	3. Day 1: Convergence in the Manse, Part 2

They had only just parted from Saito and Musubu and began their journey through the heretofore unmapped house when Asuka piped up with a question. "So, what does a ghost whisperer do, Mochizuki-san?"

"Communicate with spirits who've felt the need to return to earth and impart some wisdom," said Nanako, in a well-rehearsed line taken straight from the extended intro to _Medium Mochizuki._

"That's not entirely what I meant," said Asuka.

"Iiiiiii have a TV show."

"Ah." The tutor walked silently for a moment, seeming to ponder over that information. "Wait, does it come on Sunday mornings?"

"Yes! It's called _Medium Mochizuki._ Have you seen it?" asked Nanako, flattered as anybody in the daytime talk show world would be.

"I've definitely seen _some_ of it. Some bits and pieces, once in a while… Okay, I've flipped past it once or twice," they admitted.

"I'd hit you with the dramatic taking-great-offense act, but… it's only funny once in a while, and you just saw it with Himitsu-san a few minutes ago." She looked over and down at Asuka—down, that was a new one for someone as short as Nanako—and smiled brightly. "It's fair, Shimizu-san. I know my audience, and they aren't usually high schoolers."

"It's not just that. Tutoring has kept me busy since I was thirteen, so I didn't get the chance to watch television all that often. And even when I did… well, I never thought a show like that would be all that applicable to my life. Nobody I know has died recently, so I don't think there are any ghosts who need to tell _me_ anything."

"That _would_ explain why I don't hear the whispers of the recently departed dancing around you into a ghostly chorus," Nanako said, quoting another phrase she must have already recited twenty or thirty times.

"What? Is—Is that something that _happens_?"

"Well, do _you_ sense them?"

"No, but I'm not the Ghost Whisperer," said Asuka, confusedly.

"Even still! Ghosts aren't just _talking_. They're sending other signs, subtly manipulating other aspects of the physical world. Have you ever woken up with scratches you didn't recognize? Things knocked off of your shelves, or out of your closets?"

"I don't _think_ so?" They pondered a bit more. "No, not really. But it makes sense that a lot of people _would_ have… Have you told anybody else about this, Mochizuki-san? It all seems a little bit... rehearsed," Asuka observed correctly.

Nanako paused for a moment, then decided she could drop the pretense _just_ a little. "Oh, it _totally_ is. It doesn't matter how good you are at speaking with the supernatural if you don't have a stage presence. Nobody wants to see someone who doesn't sound like they know what they're doing, Shimizu-san."

"I guess that makes sense—oh, and here's the end of the hallway. Where should we go now?"

At the end of the hall was a single door, and to their left, another hallway that seemed identical to the one they'd just walked through.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: East Hall**

Like the South Hall, but East.

* * *

Nanako walked up to the door to take a closer look—it seemed like a simple, sliding contraption that was nothing like the ornate door in the entry hall. "I guess… check out what's in this room here? Then if we don't find anything, we can keep looking down that hallway."

"Okay, that sounds like a good plan to me."

They both waited in front of the door for an uncomfortably silent moment.

"Mochizuki-san?"

"Yes, Shimizu-san?"

"Are you going to open the door?"

"Oh, uh, absolutely, I just have to…"

"Would you like _me_ to open the door? "

"...Yeah, I'd like that a lot," Nanako said, stepping back from the door and averting her eyes in mild embarrassment. Mild enough, though, that she'd take it over the brunt of another potential avian incident.

Asuka, meanwhile, slid the door open like any other person without the baggage of the Entry Hall. They walked inside, Nanako following suit, and stopped a few steps in. "Wait, is this a—"

* * *

 **Room Discovered: Kitchen**

Growing kids gotta eat! They also gotta cook.

* * *

They turned to Nanako. "Remember what you said in the lounge, about this being somebody's house? I thought it was pretty far-fetched at the time, but you'd find all this in a typical home, too..."

Assuming the home belonged to a person who liked cooking, that is. The room was far more spacious than any kitchen Nanako had ever seen, with an island the size of a ping-pong table and three times that amount of counter space. A new-looking stove and sink took up a large space near the wall closest to the door, while various pots, pans, and dried herbs hung from racks and ropes secured around the room.

It was all fairly exciting in and of itself—if you were the sort of person who got excited about kitchens, at least—but what really stuck out to Nanako was the sheer contrast between the modern kitchen equipment and decidedly unmodern architecture and decor. Laminate countertops laid upon ancient-looking wooden cabinets, and the sparkling tiles near the sink clashed with the flooring was made from the same squeaky wood that lined the Entry Hall and hallways. Bamboo ladles laid next to cooking show-level chef's knives atop the counters.

"Huh. Well, if we can't find a way out, at least we know we won't go hungry for a while," said Nanako, hoping their stint in the mystery building wouldn't last long enough for that to be an issue.

"Maybe. But for all this cooking equipment, I don't see any food—"

They were cut off by a crash, a muffled but clearly annoyed expletive, and the sound of rummaging coming from a closet in the back of the room.

"Maybe _that's_ where they keep the food?" Nanako suggested.

"It's definitely where they're keeping _something._ " said Asuka, hesitantly walking over towards the door. They slowly opened it, revealing a walk-in pantry lined with cans and bags and jars and boxes of food, some of which Nanako did not recognize, and a large pile of brightly wrapped snacks that seemed to have toppled onto the ground. A large refrigerator hummed softly in the far back of the room.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: Pantry**

It's where they keep the food.

* * *

Of course, Nanako and Asuka were more focused on the person in the middle of the room who was staring back at them, holding an open bag in one hand and a chip a few inches away from their waiting mouth in the other.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Asami Kurogane, SHSL Roller Derby Skater**

It's all about knowing when to call off the jam.

* * *

She was a bit taller than average, with a ton of wavy, green hair that feel over her right shoulder in waves. Her outfit, on the other hand, was fairly simple: a black tank top (much of which was now covered in a faint layer of chip dust) tucked into black pants, with a cerise leather jacket and similarly-colored combat boots.

They all stared at each other, and after a decidedly awkward moment, she popped the chip in her mouth, and crunched on it loudly. It sounded delicious, especially since Nanako hadn't eaten since she'd woken up.

"You know, I think she has the right idea," said Nanako, grabbing one of the shiny packages from the ground.

"Mochizuki-san, wait! We don't know what's in there."

"I'm pretty sure _pretzels_ are in here, Shimizu-san."

"Yes, but…" Asuka sighed. "I don't know if it's a good idea to just eat the food we've found in an unfamiliar place owned by an unfamiliar person. It might be dangerous… or impolite, at least."

"Are you going to let something like _etiquette_ or _personal safety_ get in the way of eating for the first time in God knows how long?" asked Nanako, only mostly joking.

"Yes! Yes, I am!"

The other girl crumpled up her bag of chips, loudly reminding Asuka and Nanako that there was, in fact, another person in the room, and threw it over her shoulder, where it landed neatly in one of a few waste bins lining the wall. She then turned around and, apparently surprised by her own success, pumped her fist in the air. " _Yes!_ Do you guys _know_ the number of tries it took me to get that right?!"

Judging by the number of crumpled packages sitting on the ground near the bins, that number was three.

"Anyways, don't worry about the stuff here. I've eaten a lot of it and _I'm_ all good," the girl said, walking over to the trash and throwing away all her near-misses. "I woke up in the kitchen out there, so of _course_ I was gonna try and find food—and I _did_!"

"Weren't you curious about where you were? You didn't want to look around anywhere else?" asked Asuka.

"I mean, yeah, eventually," said the girl, casually. "But I can do all that on a full stomach, ya know?"

"Oh, I _know,"_ said Nanako, taking that as approval to rip open her own bag of pretzels. "Shimizu-san, do you want any?"

Asuka pondered for a moment, then sighed again, apparently won over by the dubious influence of the two hungrier girls in the room. "Sure, I'll have a few."

"Ha, nice! Knew you'd want some eventually," said the girl. "My name's Kurogane Asami, by the way. Super High School Level Roller Derby Skater. Who're you guys?"

"I'm Shimizu Asuka, the Super High School Level Tutor." They looked over at Nanako, who was still going to town on the pretzels. "And this is Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer."

"Well, it's good to meet ya. Have you guys been walking around here, then? Find anything exciting?"

Nanako swallowed her pretzels, then pointed up at a crow perched on an empty shelf too high for anyone to reach without a stepladder. "Those things, mostly."

"Those—geez! When the hell did _that_ get there?!" Asami exclaimed. "How— _how_ is a bird in here?"

"We don't really know," said Asuka. "They attacked Mochizuki-san and another student here a little while ago when they were too close to a door, but otherwise, they're a mystery to us."

"Oh! And they can tell us what time it is, too," said Nanako.

The moment the words left her mouth, the crow screeched in the same high-pitched, monotone voice:

" _CURRENT TIME: NINE THIRTY SIX A.M."_

"Thanks!" Nanako called. "I hate you!"

The crow said nothing to that.

"It… talks?" asked Asami, her initial shock morphing into disbelief.

"Talk is a _strong_ word," said Nanako. "Maybe closer to _caw,_ or _squawk._ "

"But, yes, they can imitate human speech, at least to some degree," replied Asuka, actually answering the question at hand.

"Huh." After another moment, Asami turned her attention away from the bird and grabbed a pouch of sunflower seeds from the snack-lined shelf. "Lemme try one thing then." She chucked a seed at the bird with the strength of a teenager who'd driven many a jammer off the roller derby track.

The seed hit the crow's body, bounced off, and fell, hitting every shelf on the way down with a soft _plink_ until it reached the floor. The bird did absolutely nothing in response.

The three waited in silence for a moment to see if anything would happen. When it didn't Nanako spoke up, indignantly. " _What?_ Come _on,_ we got attacked for trying to _go through a door_ , but legitimate physical assault doesn't even get a reaction?"

"Well, it _was_ just a seed," said Asami. "Wonder if there's anything bigger and heavier I could try with..."

"Or!" started Asuka, the clearest voice of common sense among them, "You could _not_ do that. There's really no reason to _try_ and rile them up, is there?"

Asami seemed to sincerely consider their words for a bit. "Hmm… I guess you're right, Shimizu. Guess there's no sense in letting these go to waste." She popped a seed into her mouth. "Oh, _nice._ These are the pepper-flavored ones, I love these." Asami seemed intensely satisfied, and Nanako couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous of her ability to move completely from talking birds to decent-quality snack food.

"Hmmmm… we've spent a bit of time in here already, Mochizuki-san. We should probably look around some more before we have to go back to the lounge."

"Sounds good to me," she said, pulled from her thoughts. Hey, Kurogane-san, Shimizu-san and I are gonna look around some more. Do you want to join us?"

Asami looked at them, then looked around the pantry again. "Nah, I'll catch up with you guys later. Still got some stuff to do in here."

"Wait, that's your fourth bag, isn't it? You're going to eat even more?" asked Nanako, who could stomach two or three snacks at a time, max. Suddenly, the talking crow was only the second-most unbelievable thing in the room.

"Hey, Roller Derby's my life, Mochizuki. I burn through five-thousand calories a day, so I gotta stay fuelled up." She flexed one arm, and faint outlines of muscle showed through her leather jacket. Then, she went straight back to the seeds.

"O-oh. Wow, you _sure_ do," said Nanako, staring at Asami a _bit_ longer than strictly necessary.

Fortunately, before it could move into _awkward_ territory, Asuka cut in. "Well, if you can, try to meet us back in the lounge at ten-thirty… what did you call it, Mochizuki-san? Bird Standard Time?"

"Lounff?" Asami asked, mouth full of sunflower seeds.

"Just leave the kitchen and go straight down the hallway for a bit, then it's the door on your right."

"Founf goof t'me," she answered, giving the two a quick wave.

Asuka and Nanako left the pantry with two entirely different thoughts in the forefront of their minds. " _Whoa._ Shimizu-san, did you see her arms? She's _built._ "

"I-yes? You're not wrong," said Asuka. I was a little more focused on… everything besides that, I guess.

Nanako sighed. "Right, everything else. How could I have forgotten about that?"

"It's a good thing we found the pantry, though, or else we would have had to figure out how to split three granola bars four ways," said Asuka, patting their messenger bag.

"If we find everyone _else_ who was at the ceremony, it'll have to be a lot more than four ways. What do you keep in there, anyways?" Nanako asked.

"Just things I think would be useful. Bandages, hair ties, snacks, and—oh my god. Hold on a second, Mochizuki-san." They began to rummage frantically through their bag, murmuring to themself as they did so.

"Wait, what's the big, metal thing clanking around in there?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," they said, not looking up.

Nanako made a mental note to worry about it a _little._

"Okay, okay—ah! Here it is." They produced a lavender-colored flip phone with a small yellow flower charm. "I _thought_ I'd left it in my bag during the ceremony."

Seeing this, Nanako patted herself down instinctually for her own phone, before realizing her dress and jacket didn't have pockets. Still, though, one was enough to contact someone—or at least figure out where they were. "Is it working?"

Asuka tapped impatiently at the buttons on the phone, and after a moment, the screen lit up, light reflecting in their gold eyes. "Yes! It has twenty-one percent of its battery left—" they deflated as quickly as they'd gotten excited. "But there's no cell signal, and… no wireless, either."

"Oh." It _was_ disappointing, but at least that little spot of hope hadn't lasted too long.

"I guess we're back to square one," said Asuka, visibly dejected.

"Nope, square two! We found the kitchen, remember? And the pantry, and a _whole_ person. We won't be weirdly splitting any granola bars today."

It didn't exactly bring a smile back to their face, but they did look a bit less despondent. "Thanks, Mochizuki-san. I guess we keep moving on, then?"

The large room attached to the kitchen by means of a semi-open floor plan seemed like the next logical area to investigate.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: Dining Room**

The class that eats together, stays together. Because they have no choice.

* * *

Unlike the decorative mish-mash of the kitchen and lounge, the dining room clearly took all of its aesthetic cues from a traditional Japanese standpoint. A long, low wooden table stretched across the middle of the tatami-floor room, with eight comfortable-looking sitting mats lining each side.

"Wow. These are _really_ nice," Nanako said, running her fingers against the wooden backs of the sitting mats as she walked along one side of the table. "They look like chairs with the legs taken off. I've only ever seen these at fancy restaurants that cater to a lot of foreigners."

Asuka, meanwhile, stayed by the back of the room. "I've never seen any restaurants that just had a single table for sixteen."

"Honestly, I'm still on my 'somebody's weird house' theory. I think this is just—"

 _Squeak._

Nanako turned to look towards the vague source of the sound, and Asuka followed with their eyes. "That wasn't one of the crows, was it?" they asked.

"No, the birds sound more loud. And _evil._ This was just kind of—"

 _Squeak. Squeak._

That time, Nanako heard exactly where it came from. She walked over to the sliding, paper door on the other side of the dining room, and, after a quick bird-check (one, in the rafters above Asuka, not terribly aggressive), she slid it open.

A girl stood in the east hall a few feet away from the door, pacing back in forth, practically bouncing as she did so to maximize the _squeak_ per step.

She was a few inches taller than Nanako, placing her firmly in the "average" category, with lightly tanned skin and wavy brown hair. The skirt of her blue pinafore bounced over her white tights as she paced about.

 _Squeak. Squeak. Squeaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueak._

The girl continued to move as Nanako stood in the doorway and watched her, not sure if she was oblivious of or simply indifferent to her presence. Asuka approached the doorway a moment after, drawing the same lack of reaction from the girl. Finally, she stopped her pacing and approached the two, floorboards squeaking at a far more acceptable level as she walked over.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Eleanor "Nelly" Hitotsuki, SHSL Antiquarian**

An aficionado about an array of ancient artifacts.

* * *

"Um, hi—" started Asuka.

"Do you know why the floor makes _this_ sound?" the girl asked, emphasizing her question with another _squeak_.

"Oooh, no, actually. Terrible flooring technique?" Nanako offered. "Or is it just really old?" Asuka gave her a strange look, one that asked if, perhaps, there was a joke they were not in on, and Nanako shrugged. "What? She _did_ ask us _._ "

"Not quite! It's 'cause they're nightingale floors. Night-in-gale-floors~" She punctuated each syllable with another _squeak._

"Oh, I've heard of those! Nijō Castle is famous for them, isn't it?" Asuka asked, and Nanako shot _them_ a look, because suddenly, _she_ was out of the loop. "What? She _did_ tell us."

"Thaaaat's right! They're called nightingale floors 'cause the noise sounds a little like a warbler. Some people say it was to prevent intruders from sneaking in, and some people say the noise is just an accident. But what _I_ know," she said, jerking a thumb toward her chest, "Is that we're somewhere big, fancy, and probably full of old, expensive things! You can only find floors like this in Japanese castles and mansions, and they were _real_ popular between the Heian period and Edo period."

"Wait, that's—that could be helpful, Shimizu-san. We might be able to figure out where we are, if we know what type of place this is and when it was built!" Nanako exclaimed. "Sometime between the Heian and Edo periods!"

"Mochizuki-san, that's more than a thousand years."

Nanako paused for a moment. "We might be able to figure out where we are, if we know what type of place this is, and... just that," she amended. "Speaking of which." She turned to the girl with an extensive knowledge of ancient Japanese architecture. "How do you know what kind of place this is?"

"Because _I'm_ Nelly Hitotsuki!" she said, with more energy than Nanako could muster up in the course of an entire hour. "Old-fashioned castles are like really big antiques, and I'm the Super High School Level Antiquarian!"

Nanako and Asuka stared at her for a moment, as politely as one could stare.

" _The_ Super High School Level Antiquarian?" Nelly tried again. "H-haven't you guys heard of me?"

"Of course we have," said Asuka, reassuringly. "You were at the entrance ceremony with us, weren't you?"

"I mean, yeah, but…"

"Sorry, Nelly-san. I don't think that's really a crowd either of us follow. I know _I_ don't know the first _thing_ about antiques or history," said Nanako, also not knowing the first _thing_ about proper etiquette when one name was western and the other eastern—but somehow, she had a feeling this was a first-name-basis kind of girl. And judging by the way the antiquarian perked up when she heard it, Nanako had a feeling she was right.

"Well, that's okay, then! Who're you guys?"

"This is Shimizu Asuka, the Super High School Level Tutor." Asuka smiled and gave a small wave. "And I'm Mochizuki Nanako the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer."

Nelly's eyes widened immediately. "Whaaaat? Ghost whisperer?! Are there any ghosts in here, Nanako-chan?" She really _was_ a first name kind of girl. "Are there any talking about _me?_ "

Nanako considered this for a moment. Her audience was two high schoolers—one of whom she didn't really know well enough to judge, while the other seemed polite enough to at least _hide_ any aggressive skepticism. Finally, she settled on a solid "Nope," and Nelly looked legitimately disappointed. "But that doesn't mean there aren't any _here_. They might just not be talking or appearing right now. Or, since we're somewhere unfamiliar, they might just… not… know where to find us?"

Nelly still seemed a bit downcast, but nodded. "I guess that makes sense, too. Maybe she'll find me later..."

"Hito— _Nelly_ -san, have you found anything here?" asked Asuka, dragging the conversation back to something somewhat productive. "Any people? Or any interesting places, or… old, expensive things?"

"Hmmmmm… I woke up near the doors with our names on them, and I think I heard someone in the closet back there, but I'm not—"

"Stop, stop, stop," Nanako cut in. "Door with our names on them?" She moved her finger between herself, Asuka, and Nelly. " _Our_ names?"

"Mmmhmm! You, me, Asuka-chan, and a bunch of other ones, too!"

"Well, that adds a _few_ more layers to this," said Nanako, stating the obvious. "Did you actually go into any of the rooms, Nelly-san?"

"Mmhmm. I went to the door that had my name on it, just for a minute. A lot of the stuff I left in my room at Hope's Peak was in there. And there were other things, too! Beds, dressers… it was a little cramped 'cause there was two of everything, though."

"Why would a room with one person's name on it have _two_ of everything?" Asuka asked, more to themself than Nanako or Nelly.

"Oh! No, no, all the doors had two names on them," Nelly clarified, then paused for a moment, clearly deep in thought. "Asuka-chan, your name is 'Shimizu,' right? That was on the same door as 'Hikaru.'"

"Hmmmm… I _think_ I remember Hikaru-san from the entrance ceremony."

"And Nanako-chan!" Nelly continued, completely engrossed in her own train of thought. "Your room was at the very end, so I didn't look at it very long… but I remember the other name on the door was in English!"

"I mean, that _does_ kind of narrow it down," said Nanako. "How many people at the ceremony had foreign names? Three? Four?"

"And my last name was next to 'Kurogane'!" Nelly finished.

"Wait—Kurogane? Shimizu-san, wasn't that the girl we just—" Nanako gestured back at the kitchen, and Asuka nodded at her. "Nelly-san, we met that girl a few minutes ago. Kurogane Asami, she's probably still in the pantry eating those sunflower seeds.

"Kurogane? Pantry?" Nelly gasped audibly. "You found her, and she found _snacks_?"

"Oh boy, _did_ she. There may or may not be any left now," Nanako joked.

"I gotta go find her and tell her about the room!" Nelly exclaimed, already pushing her way past Nanako and Asuka. "It was good to meet you two! Really good! I'll talk to you soon, 'kay?"

"Wait, we—" she was were gone before they could finish their sentence, far into the kitchen and focused solely on her mission. "We didn't get a chance to tell her about the lounge, Mochizuki-san."

"Eh, I'm sure Kurogane-san will let her know. She seems like she has her own agenda, anyways." Nanako took a quick look around the hallway—a few crows lined the hall here and there, precariously perched on some upper moulding that jutted out a bit from the wall. It was kind of weird, she thought, how quickly she was becoming desensitized to birds just sort of hanging out. "Hey, could anyone tell me what time it is?"

" _CURRENT TIME: NINE FORTY-THREE A.M."_ This time, the voice was emitted from every crow around her, including, faintly, the one in the dining room.

"Wow. I hate that even _more_ ," said Nanako sliding shut the door to said dining room. "But at least we know we still have some time left. Where to next, Captain?"

"Is that going to be a thing?" asked Asuka.

"It's already a thing, isn't it? How many people need to give you a nickname for it to be official?"

Asuka thought for a second, and shrugged. "Well, it was two for my last one… so I guess it's official after all. Well, if I'm Captain, then I… guess we just keep heading down this hallway?"

"Aye-aye," said Nanako, and the two began walking down the East Hall. "At least we sort of know what we're expecting this time around."

"We do?"

"Well, Nelly-san mentioned a closet, and that she might have heard someone moving around inside of it. That's _something_ , right?"

"I suppose it is. We should try to get to the closet she was talking about; it would be a good idea to find more people before we—"

They did not need to find another person, because another person found them. Specifically, a door in the hallway a few yards ahead of them slid open, and a vaguely familiar-looking person came walking out.

He wore a black t-shirt with a long, English word in bright green text over a long-sleeved white shirt, dark blue jeans, and black sneakers. The clothes weren't the familiar part, though—rather, it was the violet hair held back by a headband, the shape of his green eyes, the sheer height.

"Tsumugu-san, right?" asked Nanako.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Tsumugu Kaminaga, SHSL Science Journalist**

Turning "manipulation of particles with dimensions and tolerance of less than 100 nm" into "nanotechnology."

* * *

"What—y-yeah. Sorry, _who_ are you? _How_ did you know my name?"

"Hmmm… lucky guess."

"It was _not_ ," said Asuka, gently elbowing Nanako. "Tsumugu-san, we ran into your sister earlier, and she told us to keep an eye out for you. She didn't give us much of a physical description, though, and I think I can figure out why."

"Musubu's here? You saw her? Is she alright?" Tsumugu asked, concern clearly audible in his voice.

"She's fine, she's looking around another part of the building with one of our classmates," Asuka assured him.

"Whew, that's… really good to hear." Tsumugu relaxed a little. "Wait—you two were at the entrance ceremony, weren't you? Sorry I didn't recognize you, I was kind of… surprised."

"Well, that's understandable," said Asuka, not looking at Nanako but definitely talking to her.

"You two already know my name, but I'm the Super High School Level Science Journalist. May I ask who you are?"

"I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer." Tsumugu looked _just_ a little skeptical when she said that, which, given the nature of his talent, didn't surprise Nanako one bit—but he was either too polite or too caught up in everything to mention it.

"And I'm Shimizu Asuka, the Super High School Level Tutor."

"Well, it's good to meet you both, even in a situation like this. Did you two say you met our other classmates?"

"Just a few of them," said Asuka. "Himitsu-san is with your sister right now, and Kurogane-san and Nelly-san are in the kitchen down the hall. But we have reason to believe everyone else at the entrance ceremony is here, too."

"I see…" said Tsumugu, already deep in thought. "I haven't found any other people. My first instinct when I woke up was to examine my immediate surroundings, and since I woke up around here, well…" He pointed over towards the door he'd walked through.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: East Storage Closet**

Because you can't store _everything_ in the kitchen.

* * *

"It's mostly cleaning supplies and containers, with a few empty shelves" Tsumugu continued. "I'd usually imagine closets like this being pretty dusty, but the whole room was surprisingly neat."

"So, your first thought was to thoroughly investigate the whole room?" asked Asuka. "You really _are_ your sister's brother."

"Yeah, I was going to ask, actually," said Nanako. "Does bursting out of a closet run in the family, too?"

"What?"

" _Mochizuki-san_."

"I'm just saying. Once is fine, but twice is _kind_ of a weird coincidence, isn't it?"

"Oh my God," said Asuka, caught between exasperation and amusement. " _Anyways,_ Tsumugu-san, Musubu-san asked us to try and find her if we ended up finding you. We don't know exactly where she is, but we know the general direction she was going—we should start heading that way."

Tsumugu nodded enthusiastically. "Please, let's! I need to make sure she's alright."

"Actually, Shimizu-san," Nanako started, and they turned to look up at her. "I think I'm gonna keep going this way."

"Oh? Why?"

"Well, all this talk about investigating has gotten me really interested in looking around the rest of the building, and finding other people, and—"

"You're curious about the other name on your door, aren't you?" asked Asuka.

"I'm _so_ curious about it!" Nanako admitted. "It's been in the back of my head since Nelly-san left."

"Wait, what doors?" asked Tsumugu.

"The doors with our names on them," said Nanako plainly. "Apparently there are some of those down the hallway."

"I can explain more on our way to find your sister," Asuka said.

Tsumugu seemed to have an internal battle between further investigating and his sister, but after a moment, a clear winner emerged. "Thank you, Shimizu-san."

Asuka turned back to Nanako. "You can keep going this way, Mochizuki-san, but will you be alright on your own?"

"Pfft, of course," Nanako said, _mostly_ sure she would be. "I survived one bird attack, what else could happen?"

"And you remember what time we're meeting back?"

Every crow in the hallway chanted, at once, " _CURRENT TIME: NINE FORTY-SEVEN AM."_

Tsumugu looked around wildly. "What the _heck?"_

"Oh, that's another thing happens," said Asuka, clearly desensitized by this point. "I'll explain that too, but you'll probably get used to it pretty soon."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean he'll like it," Nanako muttered. "Anyways, you stay safe, too. And remember what to do if the birds start swarming."

"Um… run?"

"That's _right!"_ said Nanako, brightly. "It worked for me and Himitsu-san, at least."

"I'll remember that. Be careful, Mochizuki-san," they said warmly. "Should we start walking over there, Tsumugu-san?"

"Absolutely," said Tsumugu. "See you soon, Mochizuki-san. Thanks for telling me about my sister!"

Nanako waved as they left, and couldn't help but listen to a brief snippet of their conversation as they both walked off.

"So, Tsumugu-san, about the writing on your shirt…"

" _Defenestration?_ What about it?"

"English isn't my first language, but I've tutored a lot of people in it. Doesn't that refer to throwing something out a window?"

"Ha, yeah! Isn't it great that there's a _word_ for that…"

They moved a bit too far away for Nanako to hear them after that, but it just went to show that even mild eavesdropping could prove educational.

A moment after that, though she realized she was alone in this unfamiliar building for the first time since she'd woken up next to Saito. It wasn't frightening, not really, but it was… weird.

Well, the only way to fill the air with words again was to find someone else.

So Nanako continued along the East Hall, past the closet Tsumugu had first emerged from and past another open entryway cut straight into the wall. She peeked inside that room.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: East Bathroom**

For conducting business in the East Hall.

* * *

It looked like a slightly large but otherwise typical restroom one would find at any public establishment, minus the gender marker—which, given the fact that there wasn't another bathroom in sight, was probably for the best. At any rate, Nanako was glad that one existed somewhere, even if, like the kitchen, it implied a longer stay than she was hoping for.

When she looked down the hall again, it looked like there was one more room near the very end—but, far more importantly, it looked like there was another person, loitering around the end of the hallway.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Hyun-ki Kennedy, SHSL Chemist**

Not terribly reactive.

* * *

She walked quickly up to him, but he didn't really seem to notice, or care. He was busy wiping his glasses off on his… lab coat? Was this _another_ science person? He didn't seem particularly science-y otherwise, though, as he also wore a t-shirt Nanako assumed was for a TV show or movie she'd never seen before over a pair of rumpled jeans with light blue rubber gloves. While he was only a few inches taller than Nanako, she imagined his spiked-up light blue hair made him fairly easy to spot in a crowd.

Finally, he put his glasses back on his face, and looked at her, not bothering to hide his disinterest. "Can I _help_ you?"

"Oh, well, I mean—" it wasn't that she hadn't dealt with unfriendly people before, it was part of her job—but she wasn't quite expecting it in a place like this. "You were at the entrance ceremony, weren't you?"

"I was. So were you."

A moment of silence passed unpleasantly between them, and Nanako briefly reflected on how this was the exact opposite of what she was looking for in a social interaction. Still, this for a living, she had to _try_ and make it work.

"Well, I don't remember everyone's names," Nanako said, sweetly. "Sixteen people one after another, you know? I don't suppose you'd mind reintroducing yourself?"

"Kennedy Hyun-ki," he said, tersely. "Super High School Level Chemist." Nanako's confusion about his name must have been visible, as he rolled his eyes and continued. "Last name's Irish. First name's Korean. I'm from Japan. That's all you need to know."

Nanako nodded. "I see, I see. Well, I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer. It's good to meet you."

At that, Hyun-ki's disinterest dropped straight to acrimonious incredulity. "So, the Super High School Level _Liar,_ then?"

Nanako was taken aback—again, used to open and hostile skepticism, but not really expecting it here. "Uh, excuse me?"

"You heard me. You don't whisper—listen, talk, whatever—to any ghosts. You _lie_ to a bunch of people. You're a scam artist," Hyun-ki shrugged. "I _guess_ that's a talent."

Nanako frowned at him. "Look, I didn't walk up to you and accuse you of not being able to—I don't know, mix chemicals together? Analyze molecules?"

"That's because all of _those_ things are part of being a chemist, and even if I, personally, am a drain on humanity, I'm at least _nominally_ helpful," Hyun-ki explained. " _Your_ talent, on the other hand, is based around lying to people and… what, do you take their money, too?"

"I mean—you have to pay to go to a show, yeah—"

Hyun-ki threw up his hands.

Nanako wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that, so she tried to do what she did best: go back to the script. "Look, you're a chemist. You don't _know_ what I do. My communications with those in the afterlife are mine and mine alone, and while I _can_ understand your skepticism, I—"

"Prove it."

Nanako stopped suddenly. "What?"

"You said you could talk to ghosts. Or _whisper,_ whatever. Prove it."

Nanako sighed. "I can't. Not here."

"Because you don't have a crowd to read?" asked Hyun-ki.

" _No,_ Kennedy-san, because there are no ghosts here. We're in a weird, unfamiliar place, and the ghosts from our pasts don't know where to find us."

He nodded. "I see. Sounds like a… _blatant_ lie, to cover up a another blatant lie, but okay. If you can't see any ghosts around _me_ , maybe you're just not that great at your job."

Nanako inhaled sharply. "You know what? Fine. Be quiet, maybe they're just really faint here, and I have to listen carefully."

"Oh my God. You aren't seriously—"

"Shh!" To Hyun-ki's credit, he did stop talking, though he didn't look amused. Nanako closed her eyes, and hummed softly. Then, she opened them again. "Okay, okay. I'm getting… someone close to you… they were physically close. A relative?" That last comment had made her realize he had at least one person in mind.

Hyun-ki said and did absolutely nothing.

"A cousin…" He did nothing. "A sibling…" Nothing. "No… a _parent._ " His eyes widened by a fraction from behind his glasses. That was all Nanako needed. "Yes, a parent, definitely a parent. You were young… to young to lose someone like that. It was sudden, too… and traumatic, perhaps?"

Hyun-ki remained silent, but he looked just a bit more uncomfortable than before. There was the tiniest crack in his front, and Nanako fully intended to widen it. "Losing a parent is traumatic at any age, don't feel bad. This energy I'm feeling… it's gentle, soft… feminine, maybe?"

"You're being deliberately vague," said Hyun-ki, though Nanako could hear the slightest hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"I told you, the voices were faint here. We're lucky I'm getting anything at all. Now…" Nanako shut her eyes again. "Okay, I hear her… yes, it's definitely your mother. it was a hard death, wasn't it? For you, but also for her. There are regrets... There's more she wishes she'd done…" Though still imperceptible to any but the most trained eyes and ears, the crack had spread wide enough. Now it was time to chip a piece out. "She wishes she'd been able to tell you how much she loved you one last time."

That had been the wrong thing to say.

The crack sealed up tighter than it ever had been. Hyun-ki stood up straighter, and exhaled deeply, before saying, in a completely flat and steady voice, "My mother _never_ said those words to me."

"O-oh, well… You see, she—"

"We're done here, Mochizuki."

"...yeah, I think we are," Nanako answered, limply.

Without so much as a goodbye, Hyun-ki turned heel and walked down the hall perpendicular to them, where Nanako had been meaning to go next. She couldn't continue on her own way, lest it look like she was following him and adding yet another layer of awkwardness to an already _unbearably_ awkward situation.

So she sighed and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes and trying not to think about how badly she'd just screwed that "reading" up.

Such were the hazards of the job.

* * *

 **Whew! And here's the second round of introductions! There'll be two more of these, and maybe another chapter depending on how long the fourth one turns out, and then the prologue will be over. Hopefully they'll come out a little bit faster as I know the full roster of characters now :)**

 **Speaking of which, the full cast is out now! It can be found on my profile and the very first chapter where the submission form used to be. Thank you so, so much, to everyone who submitted a character-and thank you also to everyone who has read, and those who have reviewed. I always appreciate feedback of any variety, and, honestly, I'm just really excited to know people are reading it in general! :D**


	4. Day 1: Convergence in the Manse, Part 3

Well, it wasn't like Nanako could go down that hallway now. In fact, every second she watched Hyun-ki walk down the hall, white sneakers hitting "nigh-ten-gale-floors," was another layer of uncomfortable and guilty icing slathered atop a big, awkward cake.

She had two choices here—run back down the other hallway and see if she could catch up with Asuka and Tsumugu and pretend the last few minutes had never happened, or wait around in the general vicinity for Hyun-ki to leave. The first option probably would have been bit smarter, but… she was still _really_ curious about that English name. Besides, there was still that last room at the end of the east hall she hadn't checked out.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: Laundry Room**

Detergent and bleach can't wash away sins.

* * *

Like the kitchen, the aesthetics of the room itself and its furniture clashed horribly. Four steel washers lined one side of the room, while four dryers lined the other. A hanging line covered in clothespins split the room down the middle, with a drying rack and baskets of soaps and other laundry sundries sitting in the back. The floor and walls, though, were the same traditional Japanese style—palatial, if Nelly was right—as the hallway, while the pictures and other decorations hanging off the wall were distinctly old-fashioned.

Though it was a pleasant enough (if not visually coordinated) room, it filled Nanako with her strongest feeling of passive dread since she'd woken up. A kitchen meant they could stay for a meal or two. A bedroom meant they might stay overnight. A laundry room? Was somebody expecting them to use it? Just how long would they be here that washing their clothes would be necessary?

Of course, if they figured out how to leave, or at least where they were in the first place, there would be far less need to work herself up with these questions—so she put them out of her mind the best she could, filing them under "potential problems for future Nanako."

They were replaced almost _immediately_ by "current problems for present Nanako."

There was an open entryway to the laundry room rather than any sort of door, so Nanako was clearly able to hear what was going on out in the hallway. And what was going on, was _birds_. A lot of them, very aggressively, and very loudly. She peeked out of the room as quietly as she could (not that it would have mattered with the cacophony of squawks and flapping wings) and saw from third person what had happened to her just a little while ago.

Halfway down the hallway, crows swarmed around two deeply distressed looking people that Nanako couldn't quite make out in the flurry of feathers. One was tall, one was short, and though somebody had successfully managed to bat a crow away from the murder—it lay motionless on the ground a few feet away from them—they were both fighting a losing battle against the avian menace.

Emboldened by that one success, and also by the abundance of nearby hiding spaces, Nanako yelled to the people in the midst of the flock. "Hey! Come over here!"

" _What_?" As hard as it was for Nanako to hear them, it must have been even more difficult the other way around.

"I said, _come over here!'_ Nanako tried again, straining her voice this time. " _They won't follow you if you run away!"_

She didn't need to repeat herself after that. The taller person grabbed the shorter one by the wrist and _booked it_ towards the laundry room, practically dragging them with one hand while shooing birds out of the way with their other.

They both arrived at the entryway a few moments later. The taller person practically dove into the laundry room, and the shorter person followed, and, fortunately, the crows did not.

While the two people caught their breath, Nanako watched as the birds quieted down and eventually dispersed. A few of them re-roosted near the ceiling of the hallway, but most of them flew off elsewhere. In a matter of seconds, the hallway was just as quiet as it had been when she first arrived.

She looked back in the room to see that the two had recovered, more or less, especially the taller person. Nanako could see quite clearly now that she was a slightly-taller-than-average girl with tan skin and dark green hair pulled back into a bun, wearing military-ready clothing: an olive-green jacket atop a grey t-shirt, tan shorts, brown fingerless gloves, and combat boots. And, as Nanako noticed _very_ quickly, she was quite… _athletic_.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Hinawa Hikaru, SHSL Sniper**

Trained in camouflage, surveillance, infiltration, target acquisition, and… mathematics.

* * *

"What," the girl started, "Was _that_?"

"Oh, the uh—the birds?" Nanako asked, distractedly, ripping her gaze away to actually make _eye contact_ with Hinawa. "I don't know what they are, or why they're here. But they attacked us earlier when we tried to get through a locked door."

"Us?"

"I mean, he's in a different part of the building now. We were in the entry hall, the big door at the front of the room was locked, we thought—well, _I_ thought—maybe it could be a way out of here, maybe we should try to force it open. But, well—" Nanako took a breath, finally, and gestured to the hallway. "That happened."

"I understand," the shorter person finally spoke up. "If that's the case, then I deeply apologize, Hikaru-san."

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Yusei Shiroma, SHSL Thanatologist**

The living mourn the dead; the dead teach the living.

* * *

He was the first person Nanako had met that seemed to be about her height, so that was nice. His neatly-styled black hair, pale blue eyes, and intensely pale skin were all well and fine, but his manner of dress was… considerably less practical than Hinawa's. The long, white lab coat he wore was embroidered with black spider webs and skulls, the t-shirt he wore underneath monogrammed with kanji reading _shinigami_ (Nanako realized, with some amusement, that this was the first t-shirt design she'd seen since waking up that could both read and understand), and piercings up and down his ears.

"You see," he said to Nanako, "I was having difficulty opening one of the doors in that hallway. When Hikaru-san and I met, I asked her if she'd be able to assist me in forcing open a door I assumed was simply stuck, what with her considerably greater strength."

" _Considerably,_ yes…" Nanako murmured.

"And you saw the rest."

"It's fine," said Hinawa, tersely. "You had no way of knowing. Neither did I. And I _'m_ sorry about the whole, uh…" She grabbed her own wrist. "That."

Yusei gave a small, guarded smile. "On the contrary, Hikaru-san. Your quick thinking helped us both. I'm grateful. And _you,_ " he said, turning to Nanako, "Helped both of us, so I'd thank you for that, as well. My name is Shiroma Yusei, and I'm the Super High School Level Thanatologist. May I ask who you are?"

"I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer," Nanako said, and Yusei's smile grew a bit wider.

"Ghost Whisperer? Now _that_ is certainly a fascinating talent. It seems we're alike in that sense, Mochizuki-san, with talents and reputations that rely so heavily on death. Then again…" he looked over at Hinawa. "I imagine it might be the same for our companion."

"It's not," Hinawa said, plainly. "My field experience is limited, and I don't plan on getting any more here."

"And yet, they gave you the title of Super High School Level Sniper." Yusei replied.

"My record's twelve-hundred meters. Just because the target I shot wasn't… a person…" She trailed off as she seemed to remember Nanako was still in the room with them. "Yeah."

"No, no, that's _really_ impressive," Nanako reassured her, with absolutely no context as to how impressive it actually was.

"...Right. Anyways, you already know my talent, but my name's Hikaru Hinawa."

"Wait, wait," said Nanako, finally putting two and two together. " _You're_ Hikaru-san? Sharing-a-room-with-Shimizu-san Hikaru-san?"

"What?" asked Hinawa. "Oh, I _did_ see a door with my name and the word 'Shimizu' on there. Guess that explains that."

For a brief, brief moment, Nanako was mildly envious of Asuka.

"Mmm. In that case, might I assume that a 'Himitsu' is present here as well?" Yusei asked.

"Oh, _boy,_ is he," Nanako said. "He's a little bit… actually, you know what? I think you guys might get along really well."

"You really think so? I suppose that's reassuring," Yusei replied. "And have you already met the other person in your room, Mochizuki-san?"

"Nope! I have no idea who it is either—I haven't been down that hallway yet at all. I was going to, but then… you know, birds?" she said, telling most of the truth.

Hinawa walked up to the room's entryway and looked down the hall, scanning the area with the trained eye of someone who regularly made shots from a couple hundred meters away. "Looks like the coast is mostly clear now. A few non-hostiles in the rafters, and that one I knocked down is… still down." She pointed at the crow laying completely still on the ground.

"Wait, is it dead?" asked Nanako, peeking out at it from behind Hinawa. "Not that I'm a big fan of these things, but… that's kind of gross."

"Gross, mmm?" asked Yusei, already pulling a pair of white rubber gloves out of one of the pockets on his lab coat.

"Wait, are you going to—like, _actually_ going to—"

"I'm not the Super High School Level Thanatologist for nothing, Mochizuki-san. I specialize in deaths of all kinds." He pulled the gloves over his hands and let them snap at his wrists. "Certainly, you'd be a _little bit_ interested in the autopsy results of a creature displaying such odd behaviors."

On the one hand, ew, on the other hand… _yeah she_ _was._ "Do you think you'll be able to figure out why they can talk?"

"... _Excuse_ me?" Yusei asked.

"They can do _what_?" Hinawa asked, at the same time.

"Here, I'm kind of on a time limit anyways, so let me show you. _Hey_ , _what time is it?"_

The few crows left in the hallway helpfully showed Hinawa and Yusei their abilities. " _CURRENT TIME: NINE FIFTY-THREE A.M."_

Yusei looked at Hinawa, looked at Nanako, looked at the birds in the rafters, looked at the bird on the ground, and made a beeline straight for it.

"Hold on a sec—" In a moment, Hinawa was after him, leaving Nanako in the laundry room. They'd taken it remarkably well, but then again, Nanako figured, they might still be coming down from the adrenaline of the initial attack. Nothing opened one's mind to crow-based impossibilities quite like one of those.

* * *

 **Room (Finally) Discovered: North Hall**

This one actually has a few more doors than the others.

* * *

Nanako trailed after Hinawa, but slowly, sticking close to the doors that lined the right side of the hallway. _Finally_ , she'd get a few answers... and, probably a few more questions. She walked over to the first door at the end of the hall, with two names listed in roman letters and katakana.

* * *

 **Room 1: Vikhrov & Katou**

* * *

Bi… Viru… yeah, the first name didn't exactly roll off her non-Slavic tongue. Nanako hoped a proper introduction to the person would bring a little more clarity there, or, at the very least, an easier nickname to use.

The second name was a little bit _too_ familiar, bringing back memories of someone in particular—someone who she genuinely could not decide if she wanted to be trapped with or not. Still, though, that name _was_ common—in fact, one of the most common in the country. What were the odds?

She moved on to the next door.

* * *

 **Room 2: Hitotsuki & Kurogane**

* * *

Well, no surprise there. Nanako had a feeling that between the snacks and the energy, these two would get along like a house on fire.

She moved on to the next door.

* * *

 **Room 3: Himitsu & Shiroma**

* * *

These two might as well, but like a dimmer fire that burned an odd color, like blue or green. Some mysterious event like a hundred sudden, unexplained deaths would provide them both conversational fodder for weeks.

She moved on to the next door.

* * *

 **Room 4: Watari & Tachibana**

* * *

Well, those were two names she didn't know, but should have, because they were probably announced at the entrance ceremony, but didn't remember, because there were thirteen other names besides theirs' and her own, and her memory of the ceremony was sort of hazy now, anyways, and…

Nanako wondered, briefly, if Saito and Musubu had run into either of them.

She moved on to the next—

"Mochizuki, don't get so close."

Nanako had been so preoccupied with the bedroom doors that she barely realized she'd reached Hinawa and Yusei in the middle of the hallway. The latter knelt on the ground, hunched over the unmoving crow, while the former pointed at the next door down the hall that Nanako was walking towards. Unlike the bedroom doors, it was larger and more well decorated, sort of like the door in the entry hall, and completely absent of any names.

"That was the door we were trying to open before," Hinawa continued. "You saw how that went."

Nanako took a giant step back, and then another, until she was right next to the two of them and considerably farther from the door. "Thanks, Hikaru-san!"

Hinawa shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah."

Then Nanako looked down at Yusei, who was still examining the bird with the sort of fervor most people reserved for things that were still alive. "Did you find anything interesting, Shiroma-san?"

He continued for a few seconds, then stopped, suddenly, and sat up, placing an oddly clean scalpel, hook, and pair of calipers on the ground next to him. "Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to helpfully examine this bird."

"Oh, well… I guess that makes sense, right? You're a thanatologist, not any sort of crow specialist."

"No, you don't understand, Mochizuki-san. I've examined enough avian corpses that I have a basic knowledge of their average anatomy and physiology."

"You're right so far," conceded Nanako. "I can't say I _really_ understand that."

"This bird isn't dead. Or rather, it was never alive in the first place. Look at this," Yusei said, cradling the bird in his gloved hands and raising it up to Nanako…

...Who quickly backed away once again, struggling to keep an adequate distance between both the dead bird (probably not dangerous; gross) and the locked door (not gross; considerably more dangerous).

Hinawa, on the other hand, just calmly looked down at the bird in Yusei's hands. "What the—oh. I guess that actually explains—come _back_ , Mochizuki, it's fine."

And she did, but _very_ hesitantly. Nanako craned her neck so she could see what Yusei was holding from as far away from possible, and—wait. Was that _metal_? Whipped from mild disgust to total confusion in the span of a half second, Nanako walked right up to Yusei and took a closer look at the bird.

The outside looked like a normal crow—in fact, if Yusei hadn't made any incisions, it would be impossible to tell it _wasn't_ one. But where the scalpel had cut a neat, straight line and the hook had pulled away layers of skin, maybe, and feather, instead of blood or organic innards laid metal and computer parts that Nanako couldn't even begin to comprehend. "Is... is this a _robot?"_

"It's definitely not a _normal_ bird," Hinawa answered.

"Indeed. It's heavily augmented, at least, if not entirely artificial. At the _very_ least… I suppose it does begin to answer our questions about its odd behavior and capabilities of speech…"

"Shiroma-san, you sound a little disappointed. Were you looking forward to cutting open a dead bird _that_ much?" asked Nanako.

He shook his head. "You must understand, Mochizuki-san. I generally can't use this talent of mine to help my peers in any _palatable_ way. This… just seems like a missed opportunity, is all."

"Now _that's_ something I can relate to," said Hinawa, and both Nanako and Yusei looked up at her with a bit of surprise. "Look, if _either_ of us are using our talents around our classmates, that means something is probably wrong. Don't stress about it."

"That's… kind of you to say, Hikaru-san. I'll keep it in mind."

Again, Hinawa looked a bit uncomfortable. "...yeah."

"Hey, it's not like I can do my thing here, either," said Nanako, just really wanting to chime in one way or another. "The—the, um, energy in this place isn't too great. I tried before, and, well… doesn't look like there's going to be any good ghost communication here, you know?"

"Are you proposing we all be useless together, Mochizuki-san?"

"Useless? Of _course_ not! We've all still got our ravishing good looks and charming personalities to fall back on."

Yusei exhaled in amusement and Hinawa wore an expression that could have been a smile in the right light, and, frankly, Nanako was proud of that.

Still, though, there was one tiny issue. "So, uh, what are we supposed to do with it?" Nanako asked.

"Leave it," said Hinawa. Yusei ignored them both, poking at something on the inside of the crow. Nanako hoped he knew what he doing, but figured he did not.

"What, just—right there, in the middle of the hallway? I don't just want to leave it in front of someone's _bedroom_."

"Why? You heard Shiroma, it's not actually _dead_. What else would we—"

As if on cue, a crow roosting near the ceiling swooped down towards the three of them. But instead of clawing or pecking at any of their heads, it dug its talons into the robot crow Yusei was examining and flew off with it.

The three looked over at the exiting bird and the metal corpse it was carrying in awe, Yusei apparently too shocked to even close the hands that had been holding the crow.

"Well," started Nanako, after a moment of stunned silence. " _That_ problem solved itself."

"Ah, if only the rest of them could do the same," said Yusei, standing up and brushing off his black pants. "Though, I imagine we'd all like to minimize anymore crow involvement." Nanako nodded fervently in response.

"So, what now?" Hinawa asked.

"I'd like to visit my room for a bit," said Yusei. "While I've spent a good deal of time in this hallway, I haven't actually entered the door with my name on it."

"Me, too! I've been waiting to visit my room for—okay, it's actually just been for a few minutes, but I've been _meaning_ to do it."

Hinawa shrugged. "Well, it's not like I have any other plans."

"Great!" said Nanako. "A whole bunch of us are meeting in the lounge at ten, so we've got a few minutes. We can check our rooms out and meet back here when we're done."

Yusei made his way to the third door from the laundry room, while Hinawa and Nanako walked past the ornate, crow-locked doors to the other room down the hallway.

"So there's a lounge?" Hinawa asked Nanako.

"I mean, that's what Musubu-san and Shimizu-san called it. It's not like we have any way of knowing what these rooms are actually names, right?"

"That's fair," she said, and they both stopped at the next door down the hall.

* * *

 **Room 5: Hikaru & Shimizu**

* * *

"Hopefully I'll meet this Shimizu before we end up sleeping in the same room."

"Well, they should be in the lounge when we get there. You'll like them, though, they're nice."

Hinawa nodded. "Right, well. See you in a few, I guess." She walked inside the room and the door swung gently shut behind her, but not before Nanako heard an exclamation of genuine surprise about " _this_ being here."

Nanako would have to remember to ask about that later. But now, there was only one place she was planning to go: down the north hall, where she'd find...

Another person. In front of the room next door to Hinawa's and Asuka's stood a boy who looked both like he desperately did not want to be there, and like he had no intention of moving. Every few seconds, he raised his hand as if to knock on the door, then lowered it fearfully.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Yuki Tempura, SHSL Itamae**

There's satisfaction to be found spending one's life in front of a cutting board.

* * *

Physically, he was just a smidge shorter than Nanako, but between his frail build, pallid skin, and thin blond hair, he seemed half her size. The fact that his clothes—a blue button down shirt with rolled up sleeves, a lilac apron, brown trousers, and an embroidered green scarf—all seemed a size too big didn't help, either.

He seemed so focused on this apparently Herculean task that Nanako was fairly certain she could have walked right by him without drawing his attention. But she knew _herself_ well enough to know _that_ wasn't going to happen. And she'd met three more of her classmates on her fifteen-minute-long Room Quest, after all. What was one more?

"What are you up to?" she asked, approaching the boy. He seemed a bit startled by her approach—he stared at her for a moment, then moved his gaze quickly to the floor. "Hey, nothing's wrong or anything. I'm just looking for my room. Is this one yours?"

He pushed up the oval-shaped glasses he was wearing and looked at her again, though he didn't make eye contact, and nodded gently. "It has my name on it."

* * *

 **Room 6: Tempura & Kennedy**

* * *

"So, are you Tempura, or _Keh-neh_ —oh." Nanako frowned. This was _his_ room, too. "So you're Tempura-san, then?"

He nodded again. "T-Tempura Yuki, the Super High School Level Itamae. It's… it's, um, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too. I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer." Like many people, Yuki looked just a bit confused when she said that, and also like many people, he was a bit too polite—or perhaps shy, in this case—to say anything about it. "So… what exactly are you doing out here?"

"Um, I wanted to go in, b-but…" he looked down again, making his already quiet voice even harder to hear.

"Buuuut… your roommate's kind of cantankerous? If that's the case, Tempura-san, then we're on the same page."

Yuki shook his head quickly. "Oh, no, no! I don't… I don't _know_ if he is. I saw him walk down here, and go inside, and… slam the door. M-maybe he's just having a bad day…"

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure _anybody_ here is having a _great_ day," said Nanako, sarcasm masking her mild guilt about _her_ role in _Hyun-ki's_ bad day.

"And, um, then there were birds, and I ran away, but now I'm back, and…"

"...And you want to go in, but don't want to deal with him while he's upset?" Nanako finished, and Yuki made a vaguely affirmative noise back. "Oh. Well, here, I'll talk to him." She was… probably going to have to do it in the future, so why not just get it over with now that it could have a net positive and not just more awkward departures?

"W-would you, really?" asked Yuki, giving his first hint of a positive emotion since they'd met. "Thank you so much, Mochizuki-san."

"Hey, it's no problem. Though… he might want to see me even less than anyone else."

"What? W-wait, why?"

Nanako didn't bother to answer the question, instead knocking on the door to room number six a _little_ bit harder than she probably had to. Yuki took a few startled steps back. "Heeeey, Kennedy-san? Are you in there?"

" _I thought we were through talking, Mochizuki,"_ came the muffled response. So he was _there_ , at least.

"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to talk to me! But your roommate's out here, so you should at least greet _him_ nicely!"

" _YOU can't tell ME what to do!"_ Another muffled response. But still, the door opened just a bit, revealing the still immensely unimpressed-looking Hyun-ki. "Alright, I'm here. Now you can leave."

"Okay, just give me a second." She turned around—if Yuki looked nervous when they'd first met, he looked petrified now. "Come on, Tempura-san, he won't bite." She looked back to Hyun-ki. " _Will he?"_

Hyun-ki glared at her, then looked back at Yuki. "Well? I'm here."

Yuki stepped forward, hesitantly. "I-I-I'm Tempura Yuki. The, the, um, Super High School Level Itamae."

At once, Hyun-ki's gaze softened—not an incredible amount, but noticeably more than it had throughout either of his conversations with Nanako. "You mean like a sushi chef?"

And with that, Yuki's entire demeanor shifted, as well. And his voice—for the first time, Nanako had no trouble hearing him. "Oh, yes. Yes! I do other things too, but sushi's my favorite! I-I'm best at nigirizushi, but my maki rolls are pretty good as well, I think…" He froze, as if realizing he'd said more than a dozen words in a row. "Oh, um. I'm sorry."

Hyun-ki opened the door wider and beckoned Yuki inside. "It's fine, I love sushi. Why don't you come in, look around, and... tell me a little more about it?" he asked, in a tone that could almost be described as friendly.

"Y-yes! Thank you!" Yuki smiled at Nanako and gave a slight wave, then practically skipped past Hyun-ki into his room.

Hyun-ki watched him go with an expression that, again, was bordering on _possibly_ being interpreted as warmth—then looked back at Nanako with the same sharp glare as before. " _You_ can go."

"No, no, wait. What—what _was_ that? What _prompted_ that?" she asked in disbelief. "Are you the same person I met a few minutes ago?"

Hyun-ki rolled his eyes. "It's simple. Do you eat food, Mochizuki?"

"I _have_ been known to, yes."

"Great. Tempura _makes_ food. People _eat_ food. He's productive, he makes people happy with his honest work. Which is more than I can say for _some_ people."

As if answering, a voice sounded from inside."Wow! All my stuff is here—even my special blend of furikake!" It seemed Yuki was different, as well; now he was loud enough to hear from the other side of the (admittedly fairly small) bedroom.

"I—" Nanako sighed. "Fine, fine. He seems like he's doing better, so I'm gonna just… actually, before I go, can I just say—"

" _What_?"

"Uh… sorry? About…" she gestured vaguely to nothing in particular. "All that."

Again, Hyun-ki rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I was over _that_ ten seconds after I left."

"Wait, _seriously_?" Nanako asked. "Because I was actually feeling kind of bad about it this whole time, and—"

"I _literally_ couldn't care less."

"Huh. Well, I guess that's... that, then…" Was she just supposed to leave on that? "Oh! I should probably tell you about the thing in the lounge in a few minutes—"

He shut the door before she could finish, though he closed it gently rather than letting it swing shut naturally or slamming it. " _Okay,_ Kennedy-san! Geez." Was that… progress?

Well, at least some of her gnawing guilt had been alleviated, so it really _had_ been a net positive—not just for her, but for everyone involved. And, more importantly, it freed up the rest of the hallway. At long last, she walked to the last two doors on the side of the hall without interruption.

* * *

 **Room 7: Kaminaga & Kaminaga**

* * *

That was kind of nice, actually. Nanako wondered if they'd ever shared a room before—regardless, of everyone here, they were probably the best equipped to do so. This unknown sort of place would squash any sibling rivalry before it could crop up.

And then, finally. The last room in the hall, the room with the English name, the room with _her_ name…

* * *

 **Room 8: Wilson & Mochizuki**

* * *

Nanako mumbled to herself, examining the nameplate and trying to sound out the pronunciation through the kana written on the door. " _U… iru… sohn?"_

The door suddenly opened, and Nanako stood up straight in surprise. "Hey, you're gonna want to try _'Will-_ sehn,'" said the boy who opened the door. "It's not Japanese, but it's pretty easy if you say it a few times.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Henry Wilson, SHSL Historian**

Not, like, _all_ of it. Do you _know_ how long history been happening?

* * *

"Will… sen. Will… sehn. Wilson. Huh, you're right." Now that Nanako was done with the name, she took a closer look at the guy it was attached to. His features were about as average as they came: short brown hair, brown eyes, a ruddy complexion… and, well, he _was_ a few inches taller than average. Still, though, his clothes went right back to average: blue jeans, a plain white t-shirt, some silver tags on a chain around his neck, and an aviator jacket with a red and blue patch on the left denoting something that, as per usual, Nanako had never actually heard of.

"I take it you're Mochizuki, then?" He opened the door a bit wider, and leaned on it to keep it open.

"Mmhmm. Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer," she said. "You have _no_ idea how long I've been waiting to learn your name. Or… well, okay, it's probably been ten or fifteen minutes. But, still! Those were ten or fifteen minutes I spent in _suspense_ , Wilson-san."

"Oh, no, don't you start with 'Wilson.' Stick with 'Henry' for me. Henry Wilson, the Super High School Level Historian—pleased to meet you." He stuck out his hand, and, thankfully, a few years in the daytime talk show circuit had Nanako instinctually reaching out to shake it back. Still, though, it seemed a little weird, a little formal, a little… foreign.

"Have you been here for a while, Wi—Henry-san?"

"I got here a while before you did. I saw a door with my name on it—where else was I supposed to go?"

"That… is entirely fair," said Nanako. "Is there anything exciting in here?"

"Well, if you'd call a tiny bedroom exciting… then again, when we wake up like this, I guess everything's a _little_ exciting." He stepped back along with the door, vacating the entrance entirely, and jerked a thumb back into the room. "You wanna take a look?"

Oh, she _did_ wanna take a look. Nanako walked inside while Henry let the door shut behind her, and…

Well, it was a bedroom, alright! It seemed Nelly was accurate with her description, especially the part where the room was _just_ big enough to walk around in with all the furniture. It was also just about symmetrical: two beds with their headboards against the wall, two small bed tables with lamps, two short dressers near the front of the room, and two single-shelves attached to opposite walls. What was likely a window at one point sat in the back of the room between the beds, a metal plate bolted over the top and an admittedly lovely piece of traditional art clumsily covering the cover-up. It… didn't exactly inspire confidence in Nanako's hope to leave the building sooner than later. And, _of course,_ a crow sat atop a small perch in the corner of the room that seemed almost built for it.

But much, much weirder than any of _that_ was that the room, like Nelly had also mentioned before, was already decorated. With Nanako's stuff. The same purple bedspread and black and white pillows she'd brought to Hope's Peak covered the bed on the left side of the room, and a few books she enjoyed and trinkets she'd collected sat on the left shelf along with a big, light green candle in a glass container helpfully labeled _Pine Forest._ An old photo of her parents and another of Nanako and her sister were displayed on top of one of the bed tables, and… well, now she _had_ to check. She opened one of the drawers in the left dresser, and lo and behold, a set of some very familiar undergarments and pajamas lay inside.

"Huh," said Nanako, calmly. "What the _heck?"_

On top of the dresser, meanwhile, was another candle (black; labeled _April Moonlight_ ), and her sorely outdated cell phone. She flipped it open—like Asuka's, it had a bit of charge left, and like Asuka's, there wasn't a drop of connectivity. "Yep. I'm..." she flipped it shut and put it back on the dresser. "I'm gonna stick with _what the heck."_

"So I'm guessing that's all yours? And that you don't remember moving any of it in, either?"

"It looks that way," said Nanako, going through the rest of the drawers. Clothes, clothes, another dress, another jacket, some accessories, another scented candle (white; _Sugar Cookie_ ), more clothes… "I just… don't get it. I recognize all of this, and I'm _pretty_ sure I brought it all to Hope's Peak. But we're definitely not there, and I definitely didn't bring it _here…_ "

"Yeah, same with—wait." He looked at her shelf and the top of her dressed. "Did you bring _two_ candles to _school_?"

"Three." She pulled _Sugar Cookie_ out of the drawer and held it up. "Actually, I think I might have brought a few more… there was _definitely_ something apple-scented in the mix."

Henry looked dumbfounded. "W...why?"

"Oh, I go through these like water, Henry-san. It's all part of the job. Ghosts love a good candle, and I love the smell of fresh rain in an evergreen forest."

"That… sounds kinda fake, but I guess I don't know enough about ghost whispering," he said, pretty much unconvinced.

"Trust me. I'm usually on the television circuit, but I'll do private events sometimes, and these things are _instrumental_ to communing successfully." To setting up the right aesthetic, mostly, but that was something she did not typically tell people. "What about you?" Nanako asked, standing back up and leaning against what was apparently her dresser. "All this other stuff is yours too, right?"

He nodded, gesturing to the right side of the room, personalized in a way that Nanako figured suited him. A plain white bedspread covered his bed, while his shelf was packed _full_ of thick books in English and Japanese, with some more stacked on top of those. "It's just like yours, but with one other weird thing." Henry walked over to his dresser and picked up a long, hardback book that was sitting on top. "This was here, too."

The cover said… _something_ , definitely. English—actually, any non-Japanese language—wasn't really Nanako's strong suit. "Oh! I know _that_ word! That's _winter_ , right?"

"That's right. It's a book about the Winter War, with collected testimonies from Finnish soldiers that were just recently translated into English!"

Nanako stared at him blankly.

"You know, the Winter War? The inter-war conflict between Finland and the USSR that galvanized the Axis powers into the ultimately unsuccessful invasions of—you have _no_ idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"Not a _clue_ ," said Nanako, brightly. "See? You have your Finland, and I have my candles. That's how these talents work, right?"

"I… wait, hang on, that's not the point I'm trying to make. _Most_ of this stuff I brought to Hope's Peak. But this book," Henry continued, "didn't come out until the same day as the entrance ceremony. I was really looking forward to getting it, but I thought I'd have to wait a while before I got to visit a bookstore big enough to stock English-language books."

That… had a lot of implications. Granted, the entire bedroom situation had implications, but Henry's book had a _few_ more _._ "So… did whoever… whatever… brought us here just want to leave you a personal gift, or something?"

Henry shrugged. "It's _really_ weird, but… I'm not complaining. It's the best thing that's happened to me all day, that's for sure."

Nanako sighed, resisting the urge to fling herself onto her bed in a somewhat-justifiably dramatic way. "Okay, so… we have our belongings here, we have things that aren't our belongings, necessarily, but that we're going to keep because we like them here. Did I miss anything."

"No, I—" Henry stopped himself, then resumed speaking in a hushed voice. "Actually, Mochizuki, there's one more thing. I didn't wanna to bring it up before and overwhelm you with everything at once."

"What? What is it?"

"Okay, don't freak out or anything, but if you look up in the corner of the room, there's—"

"What, the crow? Is that it?"

"Uh…" Henry paused. "Yeah, I guess? I… just kinda thought you'd be a little more weirded out, seeing a bird staring at us."

" _Henry-san_ ," Nanako started. "I have dealt with _so_ much bird-related nonsense today, you don't even _know._ Here, I can show you something else." She looked up at the crow—their equivalent of a digital clock on the nightstand, she supposed. "Hey, what time is it?"

" _CURRENT TIME: TEN ZERO THREE A.M."_

Henry looked up at the bird with the same bewildered expression everyone else seemed to wear when they first heard the talking birds. "What the…"

" _See_? It's pretty… wild…" Nanako trailed off, suddenly realizing she had somewhere to _be_. "Oh, _shoot_! I totally forgot—"

"What? What else _is_ there?" asked Henry, shock giving way to mild concern.

"Nothing bad this time, I promise! Henry-san, do you want to meet some new people?" Nanako asked, already yanking the door open.

"Uh—sure? Yeah, why not?" he answered, walking up to her.

"Great! Come on then, we were supposed to be there three minutes ago." She all but pushed him out of the room and followed quickly after, letting the door close behind them both unceremoniously.

* * *

 **Hello! I want to say I'll keep updating about once a week, but my way of writing is so inconsistent that I'm not entirely sure! I'm definitely going to try and stick to that, though. I'm also still not sure whether the prologue is going to be one or two more chapters (if there are two, the second one will probably be pretty short) but either way, I promise we'll eventually reach the murder game part of this story that is ostensibly about a murder game.**

 **PS: One of the research articles I read for this story was written by a crow thanatologist. Like, a woman who specializes in the field of "how crows die." I didn't know that was a field of research by itself, but she's apparently a doctoral candidate now. So, remember to keep following any very specific passions you might have!**


	5. Day 1: Convergence in the Manse, Part 4

Hinawa and Yusei were waiting in the middle of the hall, chatting quietly and occasionally gesturing up towards one of the crows near the ceiling. Nanako walked quickly towards them, not-quite-but-almost shepherding her roommate in the same direction.

"So, uh, where are we going, again?" asked Henry, who _clearly_ was not moving this pace of his own volition, but picked it up for Nanako's sake.

"A bunch of us agreed to meet back in the lounge at 10 AM, and it's 10:03 right now."

"Oh, okay. Wait, there's a lounge?"

"Yeah. I mean, sort of? We're _calling_ it a lounge. It's got couches, tables, _and_ sitting mats; that's pretty lounge-like."

"Sounds more like a living room to me," Henry said.

"Ugh, no. That would imply we'd be _living_ here, and I'm not about to do that."

"And the _bedrooms_ don't imply that?"

"Well… if we stop calling them bedrooms and start using 'more comfortable and personalized lounges,' maybe not."

Henry looked like he had _something_ to say to that, but before he could, the two ran into Hinawa and Yusei.

"Mochizuki-san, there you are! We were going to come knock on your door if you didn't come out soon. Ah, and is this—"

"Henry Wilson, the Super High School Level Historian," Nanako cut in. "Henry-san, this is Shiroma Yusei, the Thanatologist, and Hikaru Hinawa, the Sniper." With those bare excuses for introductions through, she continued along the hallway.

"Why are you in such a hurry, Mochizuki?" Hinawa asked, though she began to walk down the hall without protest as Nanako gently ushered the three of them along. "Trust me, I get promptness and everything, but it's _literally_ three past ten."

"I know, I know…" said Nanako. "The television host in me just hates to be late to an appointment, you know?" Well, that and _she_ had been the one to tell everyone to meet in the lounge at ten. You weren't supposed to be fashionably late to an event that _you_ set the time for.

Hinawa didn't roll her eyes at that, but Nanako could tell she deeply considered doing so. "So, where's the place?"

"Just down here!" said Nanako, pointing down the north hall. "Then, we tuuuurn… here." She'd made her way to the front of the group and pointed at each room in the east hall as they passed. "There's the laundry room, we had some good times in _there…_ " Hinawa _did_ roll her eyes at that, while Yusei hummed in agreement and Henry looked totally lost. "A bathroom… a storage closet… aaaand the kitchen!"

"Oh, _sick_ , I was wondering if we had food here. Any shot we could stop for breakfast?" asked Henry, only mostly joking

"Noooooo," whined Nanako, only mostly joking back. "We'll all get together now, and then we'll hopefully be somewhere else by lunchtime. Speaking of—one last turn here, and the door to the lounge is right up there!" she said, pointing one of the two doors in the south hall. "The one on the other side leads to the entry hall, if you want to get attacked by crows again."

"Wait—attacked? What?"

"I see you didn't inform him of our earlier plight, Mochizuki-san."

"Oh, well, just don't go near any big, fancy-looking doors if you can help it. If the birds start swarming, back off and they'll get tired of you," said Nanako, casually.

"Is this something that happens? Mochizuki, did you—" he whirled around to look at Hinawa and Yusei, and their similarly distressed hair and mild antipathy at the mention of birds. "Did this happen to _all_ of you?"

"I told you, Henry-san. _Lots_ of bird-related nonsense today… ah, and here we are!" Nanako exclaimed, walking up to the sliding paper door of the lounge.

"This is where everyone is?" asked Hinawa.

"Well, maybe not _everyone…_ Himitsu-san, Musubu-san, and Shimizu-san are the only ones who actually agreed when we first made the plan." Nanako shrugged. "But I asked a couple other people when I ran into them, so we'll see." She slid the door open with both hands, revealing a room full of four, seven, nine… a total of twelve people: most of them Nanako recognized, a few she did not.

"So it _is_ everyone, after all?" asked Hinata, apparently making the same headcount.

"It looks like it!" said Nanako. "But, wait, if it's everyone—" she spotted Hyun-ki in one corner of the room, scanning the area while making a solid effort not to socialize, and Yuki near the middle, nervous-looking but less so than before as Asami and Nelly chatted him up. She would have been a bit more happy for him if she wasn't busy with a pang of indignance. "How did they get here _before_ us _?_ "

"If you're referring to the blue-haired boy and his blond roommate, Mochizuki-san, they passed us as we waited for you and Henry-san in the hallway," said Yusei.

Hinawa nodded. "We asked if they wanted to wait with us, and the guy in the lab coat said—I'm quoting him exactly here—'we'll pass.'"

"Ugh, whatever," said Nanako, beginning to wonder why she'd wasted her guilt on him in the first place. "Well, we're all here, and that's good."

"Great! I'm glad to hear it. So, what now?" asked Henry.

Nanako thought for a moment. "Iiiiii am not actually sure." She didn't know what to expect when she entered the lounge, but she figured the _best_ case and thus _least_ likely scenario would be a well-organized group planning an escape from the building. As it stood now, everyone stood in loose clumps, chatting restlessly with one another. "We… meet everyone else?"

"Works for me," said Hinawa, walking past Nanako into the lounge. "Probably a good idea to get a handle on who I'll be rooming with. Mochizuki, you said you knew who Shimizu was?"

"Mmmhmm. Right... there! They're on that side of the room, the short one with the fluffy sweater." She turned to Yusei. "Shiroma-san, your roommate is the guy standing next to them."

"With the shirt that says— _what_ is that word?" he asked.

"I don't know, something in English about throwing things out of windows. But, no, the _other_ guy."

"With the slip of paper in his hatband?" Nanako nodded in response. "Is he a reporter?"

"...In a sense," said Nanako. "But they're both nice enough people, as far as I can tell."

"How long have you _had_ to tell?" asked Hinawa.

"Around fifteen minutes."

"Well, that's more than me." With that, Hinawa was on her way over to the trio. Yusei trailed behind her, looking at all the other students with the curiosity of a scientist who'd spent his recent years surrounded by things that weren't quite as alive.

Nanako turned to Henry. "So, do you need any help finding your roommate?"

"No, I can just follow the scent of… what was the white one? _Cookie Jar?"_

"Oooh, close. It was _Sugar Cookie_ , but points for _almost_ getting it." She stepped into the lounge proper, Henry following right behind her. "But, seriously, do you have anything in mind right now?"

Henry shrugged. "Hey, you know as much as I do. Actually, since you were walking around and I was just hanging out in our room, you know a little more."

Now _there_ was a new phenomenon this morning, _knowing_ things. "You haven't met most of the people here, right? I guess the best thing to do would be to go around and introduce ourselves. _Most_ of them seem alright so far…" Nanako shot a glare to the far corner of the room.

"Hey, some guy's coming over here," said Henry, pointing over Nanako's head with relative ease. "He's… wow, he's… _something_ , alright. You met him, yet?"

"Oh, who— _oh._ " Nanako smacked her forehead and pulled her hand down her face. " _Yeah_. I know _this guy_."

He strode towards the pair with a bright smile on plastered on his face and called, as if on cue, "Nanako, _darling_ , it's been _far_ toolong!"

It seemed the odds of it being _that_ Katou were actually _pretty damn high._

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Shin'Ichi Katou, SHSL Showrunner**

"Hang loose, baby!"

* * *

"Chishin, whatare you _doing_ here?" Nanako asked, feeling years of paradoxically delighted exasperation creep back into her voice.

"Chishin?" asked Henry. "Okay, I thought I was lost before, but—"

"Don't sweat it, tall stuff," Shin'ichi said, to the boy that _might_ have been an inch taller than him. He joined the group properly and shot Nanako a quick wink. She did not wink back. "Nanako and I go _way_ back. Speaking of which—just why _are_ you so surprised? I wasat the entrance ceremony, you know. Sitting on the other side of the row, yes, but I _was_ there."

"Wait, seriously? But I would have heard your—oh, I guess if they're using 'Katou' here, they would've used your real name at the ceremony, too. And we were all in our school uniforms, so you didn't have your usual…" she gestured up and down his body. "Getup."

And it was _quite_ a getup. His beachy-tanned skin, angular features, and dark hair and eyes gave Shin'ichi a vaguely glamorous aura, which he immediately destroyed with his outfit: a ruffled white shirt with purple highlights, blue and green checkered shorts, and a red pullover with the sleeves draped over his shoulders. Not helping matters were the white trilby, or the gold rings that covered eight-tenths of his fingers.

"So… this is a friend of yours, Mochizuki?" Henry asked, not quite able to peel his eyes away from the fashion tornado in front of him.

"'Friend'is… the _wrong_ word," Nanako replied, desensitized to the aforementioned tornado and looking straight up at Shin'ichi's face. "There's a _lot_ going on here. Speaking of—why don't you introduce yourself, Chishin?"

"Oh, but of _course._ My name is Katou Shin'ichi, and my talents lie in Showrunning. But please—all my _friends_ call me Shin." He grinned broadly and stuck out his hand, which surprised Henry a little bit, but not Nanako. He had always known his audience, after all.

"Uh… Henry Wilson," he responded, taking Shin'ichi's hand and shaking it firmly—he, apparently, had always known a good handshake. "I'm The Super High School Level Historian. Can I ask you something?"

"Anything. Well, _most_ anything."

"Are you _real_?"

It would have thrown some people off, but years of show business prepared a person. "Oooh, that's a _tough_ one. I'm going to say… mostly. More than Nanako, but less than you and most other people."

" _Hey_ ," came Nanako's voice, from half a foot below them both.

"Now it's my turn. Your name is very interesting," Shin'ichi said, cocking an eyebrow. "Sounds… _exotic_. Where is that from? Australia? Britain?"

"Uh, America," said Henry.

"That was my next guess, I swear. Such an exciting country… and such _good_ television! Some of the dramas and mysteries you all produced will be going down as some of my perennial favorites. Are there any that you particularly like, Henry-kun?"

While he was still clearly a little thrown by Shin'ichi's… entire being, Henry seemed to put genuine consideration into the question. "Hm… no, not really. I didn't watch a ton of American TV as a kid."

"Really? An American not watching American television? You're missing out, Henry-kun."

"Well, they just didn't play a ton of it over here. I didn't really grow up with it, so I didn't really see the point in watching it when I got older, either. Sometimes I'll see the American movies they dub over, but..."

"Wait, wait," Nanako cut in, resisting the urge to stand on her tip-toes. "Did you _not_ grow up in America, Henry-san?"

Henry shook his head. "No, I've lived in Kanagawa my whole life. I've only been to the US twice, to visit my grandparents."

'So, let me get this straight," started Shin'ichi. "Your name is American, your parents are American, and you're… oof, that is just a _mess_ of _jus soli_ and _jus sanguinis_ that a couple of folks working in television really have no business parsing. But you _were_ born in Japan. Did I miss anything?"

"Uh, no?" asked Henry, now back to thoroughly confused. "You've got it all down."

" _Great,_ great!" said Shin'ichi, looking directly at Nanako. "And it's been… what, two minutes?"

Nanako narrowed her eyes. " _Hey,_ Henry-san?"

"Yeah?"

"Is there any chance I could _borrow_ Chishin for a second?"

Henry paused. "You're talking about Katou when you say that, right?"

"Please, Henry-kun, call me 'Shin.'"

"Right, sorry. You're talking about _Shin_ when you say that, right?"

"I _sure_ am," said Nanako.

"Uh... " If nothing else, it was clear Henry realized this was a situation developing _around_ him, rather than _involving_ him. "Sure thing, Mochizuki. I'll… go ahead and meet some other people for now." He walked off towards a girl leaning against the far wall near the fireplace, leaving Nanako and Shin'ichi standing by the doorway to the lounge.

"Are you _happy_ , Chishin?" Nanako asked.

"Oh, I am just _beside myself_ with delight, Nanako," Shin'ichi replied. "Two minutes is a new record for me—though I don't know if it counts, since I could just ask him outright."

"You know, I kind of thought we were over this."

"And _I_ thought we were over the worship of reality stars who are famous for being famous without having any _actual_ talent. And yet, here we both are." He waved his hand lazily in the air. "Wherever _here_ is. Anyways, how'd _you_ do?"

Nanako pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's been… ugh, fine! I would have tried harder if I knew _this_ was going to be a thing again. He's… well, he's _really_ into history..."

"The _Historian_ is into _History_? That's it? You're losing your touch, _Medium Mochizuki_."

"Yeah, well, he's not _dead_ , and I'm not _done_. Mmm… his outfit and haircut are both pretty simple and his bedspread looked plain, so I'm thinking physical appearance isn't all that important to him—or maybe he just doesn't like taking risks with it."

"His bedspread? Nanako, what _have_ you been _up_ to since—"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Chishin, it's just that all of our stuff is in the same room. Speaking of that, he has some books that look longer than the _dictionary_ —so I'm willing to bet his attention span's a bit longer than average, too."

Shin'ichi seemed to ponder this for a moment. "So I was more direct, and you had a lot more to go on, visually… sounds like a tie, to me!"

"Wooo, we did it!" said Nanako, with remarkably fake enthusiasm. "It's just like before, but now we're trapped in a weird building with our classmates and, just, a _ton_ of birds."

"What, not a fan of our avian pals? I know it's not my usual purview, there's a Hitchcock movie that shows how bad it could _reall_ y be."

Nanako grabbed her braid, still disheveled from her close encounter of the bird kind. "I don't know what _that_ is, but I _do_ know that I've had enough of these crows, and this place. _You_ didn't happen to find an exit while you were here, did you?"

"No, I was just entertaining myself in the… what did she call it, a study? I was there until your friends Musubu-kun and Saito-kun found me—imagine my surprisewhen they told me _you_ were here."

"So… no exit?" asked Nanako, more or less ignoring that last part.

"You know, you aren't the first person to ask me about that, Nanako," said Shin'ichi. "That's what the other girl in the study had in mind, too. Why are you all in such a hurry to leave, anyways?"

"I—what?" For someone used to Shin'ichi's Shin'ichi-ness, this even threw Nanako off. "Becaaaaaaause I don't like being taken somewhere without my knowledge or consent and forced to stay there?"

"Well, yeah, if you look at it _that_ way."

"Is there _another_ way you're looking at this, Chishin?"

" _Picture_ it," he said, sticking his arms out and forming a rectangle with his hands. Fifteen students…"

"Sixteen students," Nanako corrected.

"Fifteen. _Somebody_ has to be behind the camera, Nanako. Anyways, they're all trapped in this strange building, with none of their memories and _apparently_ some of their belongings, forced to figure out how they got here, and, more importantly— _why_?" He held that last word for a moment, apparently waiting for Nanako to respond. "What, you don't want to find out?"

"I mean, it would be nice, but not as nice as… not being here," Nanako replied.

He waved her off, dismissively. "Fine, fine. I'll go find Saito-kun and Musubu-kun, _they_ didn't seem to think finding out a little more about this place was a terrible idea."

"Well, yeah, you heard about their talents! Figuring things out and putting facts together are kind of their _things._ Well…" she looked over at the group Yusei and Hinawa had joined. "The facts are _Musubu-san's_ thing, anyways."

Shin'ichi laughed, and Nanako realized she'd missed it. "That is _priceless_ , coming from you."

Well, she hadn't missed it _that_ much. "What _ever_. Didn't you say you were going to go find Himitsu-san and Mutsubu-san?"

"Aww, you're that eager to get rid of me?"

"More like I should probably meet the rest of the people here," said Nanako. "I mean, I've spent all this time here, and I haven't even technically met someone new yet!"

"Fair, fair," Shin'ichi said. "Well, it's not like we're going to end up too far apart. If this _brilliant_ tactical lounge-meetup doesn't end up getting us out, let's hang out later."

"I… don't think I'd mind that, actually," Nanako answered.

"And while we're there, we can talk about getting you out of that daytime talkshow slot and into a respectable television career."

"Alright. _Bye_ , Chishin," she said, walking away and rolling her eyes as good-naturedly as one could. True to his word, Shin'ichi went off to find Musubu, who at this point seemed to be _trying_ to talk to Hyun-ki. He didn't seem excited about it, but he didn't seem to be actively brushing her off, either—which was more than Nanako could say for herself. _Geez._

Nanako, on the other hand, was on the lookout for the three people she _hadn't_ yet spoken with. Her eyes stopped on Henry, who was still talking to the girl near the fireplace. Nanako didn't recognize her, so she figured that seemed the best place to head next.

"I'm just saying," Henry started, "I would be so _cool_ if I could just—oh, hey, Mochizuki!" he turned to greet his roommate. "You finish up what you needed to with Ka—Shin, over there?"

"I'm don't think I'll _ever_ be finished with him. But forget about all that now," Nanako said, dismissing the line with a gesture. "Who is—oh. _Wow._ "

The girl Henry had been talking to wasn't physically intimidating, per se—she was only an inch or so taller than Nanako (and still quite a bit shorter than Henry), with pale skin, pale violet eyes, and pale blonde hair. Her outfit wasn't anything exceptional, either, with a white button-up coat, black trousers, and a dark blue scarf wrapped around her neck. No, what caught Nanako off-guard here was the girl's cold countenance, her very aura; it seemed she could rip someone in half if she really put her mind to it.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Viktoriya Vikhrov, SHSL Lieutenant Colonel**

The only soldier to successfully dig a trench from the fence to lunchtime.

* * *

"I am Viktoriya Vikrov, the Super High School Level Podpolkóvnik," she said, curtly. "Who are you?"

"The… okay, I'm going to need you to say that all _one_ more time," said Nanako.

Viktoriya exhaled with impatience, but relented. "VEEK-toh-ree-uh VEE-krohv," she repeated, slowly. "As for my title, that would be 'Lieutenant Colonel,' in Japanese. They insisted I use the authentic Russian version for official purposes, but... this situation is anything but official. _Now,_ who are you?"

"Wait, wait," Henry interrupted. "If they wanted you to be authentically Russian, why're you going by 'Vikhrov' and not 'Vikhrova?'

Both Nanako and Viktoriya looked at him without a word.

"What? That's a thing they do in Russia, use different last names depending on gender."

"You aren't Russian," Viktoriya observed, accurately.

"No, but I know a pretty good amount about the culture countries important to military history in the past two centuries," explained Henry. "And yours was _pretty_ darn instrumental."

"Wait, is that actually a _thing_?" asked Nanako, looking between the two. "Because that sounds like it could be _really_ confusing."

Despite their lack of a height difference, Viktoriya's cold stare made Nanako feel like Viktoriya towered over her. "These are bold words, from a woman whose language consists of three separate alphabets."

"Don't forget how the grammar changes depending on how polite you're being!" Henry added. "That was always a pain for me."

"Yeah? Well, _English_ is… okay, I don't enough of it to come up with a specific thing, but it's _hard_ ," complained Nanako.

"Right, right," Viktoriya said, dragging the conversation back to something resembling proper introductions. "Languages of the world are difficult and this American-Japanese boy has an adequate understanding of our socio-linguistic customs. To you, Henry-san, I will say that keeping my father's last name as it is was a choice I made for simplicity's sake. It is not unheard of." She turned to Nanako. "And to _you_ , I ask one last time that you share your identity with me, lest I return to those doors in the hallway and figure it out myself."

"Sorry, sorry," said Nanako, a little more thrilled with Viktoriya's stern voice than she wanted to admit. "I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer."

"Ghost Whisperer…" For a moment, Viktoriya looked like she wanted to say _something_ , but she returned quickly to her cool demeanor. "That is a talent that Hope's Peak Academy felt valuable enough to offer you admission."

"Is... that supposed to be a compliment, or an insult?" asked Nanako.

"It is a statement," replied Viktoriya. "And, furthermore, it is all of the knowledge of you I require at this point, and I've shared all you require of myself."

"And _that's_ what I was telling her when you walked up, Mochizuki," Henry said. "Viktoriya, even if you don't want to know anything else about her or me, can't I ask you a _few_ questions? I've never even _met_ a Russian military officer, let alone one who can speak Japanese!"

"No. The girl with the violet hair and trench coat asked me many questions. I answered few of hers, as well. I do not plan to change that here."

"Well, Musubu-san _is_ the sleuth. Henry-san, if you want to interview a military person, why not just ask Hikaru-san? She seemed… well, at least a _little_ more willing to talk."

"Number one, I live, like, twenty minutes from Yokosuka. I can always find Japanese and American personnel to talk to," explained Henry. Nanako had no context for what that statement meant, but didn't have any reason to doubt him, either. "Number two, Hikaru is a sniper, right? So she's probably in the Special Forces of the JGSDF… first company, specialized squad in the first platoon…" Again, Nanako had _absolutely_ no idea what Henry was talking about, and it must have shown on her face. "Basically, if we combined the Japanese SDF and the Russian military, Viktoriya would outrank Hikaru."

"I'll… take your word for it," said Nanako.

"Beyond the fact that I do not _want_ to, I would not contribute to your knowledge of history, military or otherwise," said Viktoriya, plainly. "I am a current officer, not a _Glávnyy Márshal_ of the SSSR."

Henry looked just a bit crestfallen. "But—"

"And besides _that_ ," Viktoriya continued, that same edge of 'being taller than everyone in the room' creeping into her voice, "Focusing on conversation now is foolish. We're in an unfamiliar and potentially hostile place with no immediate means of exit. Strange things—" she gestured to the ceiling, where a calm but growing number of crows were roosting— "Are occurring around us. We should be acting with utmost caution."

"Hey, I'm being cautious," said Nanako. "If the birds start swarming, I am _more_ than prepared to run and hide. Besides, it's not like getting to know each other is going to _hurt_ our chances of working together to get out."

"In the military, tasks are completed under a single common cause. Protecting the state, advancing its interests… comrades-in-arms do not to need to know each other's favorite colors or," she looked at Henry, "Discuss the merits of _Sovetskikh_ KV versus IS tanks."

"So you _do_ know!"

"And now _you_ know it is not important that I do."

"Guh, fine." Henry turned to Nanako. "I think I'm ready to go."

He walked off, and Nanako was about to follow when Viktoriya grabbed her shoulder. " _Wait_."

Nanako was a bit startled by both the physical contact and the sudden willingness to talk, but, as instructed, she waited. "There is a member of the Japanese SDF here? A woman?"

"Uh, yeah… I think. Hikaru-san said she was a sniper with military training, but I don't actually know about the specifics Henry-san was talking about."

"Where is she? Is she in here?"

"Yeah. She iiiiiiiis…" Nanako pointed towards the other side of the room. "Okay, see the girl over there? Green jacket, hair in a bun? That's her."

"I see..." Viktoriya looked over at Hinawa, eyes lingering longer than they had to. The shadows of a familiar-looking expression crept onto her face.

"I _know_ , _right?"_ said Nanako, also looking over at the sniper.

Viktoriya snapped right back to face Nanako. "Whatever you are implying with that voice and those words, you are mistaken," she said, a few degrees more harshly than Nanako had heard her speak yet.

"I'm not implying _anything_ ," said Nanako, putting her hands up. "Except for that Hikaru-san looks like she's been through _some_ training."

The Russian girl closed her eyes and sighed, softly. "Very well. That was the only question I had for you, Mochizuki-san. You are dismissed."

"Wait, what? Okay, I think that's a military thing, but we aren't actually—"

"You are _dismissed._ "

"Okay, then," muttered Nanako, walking over to rejoin her roommate.

"What was that all about?" asked Henry, once they were comfortable distance away.

"I'm… not entirely sure," said Nanako. "I got, um, dismissed? It still wasn't the worst conversation I've had today."

"Wow."

"Look, it's been kind of a crazy… I don't know, hour or so? I've met thirteen people in a very short amount if time, it makes sense that I wouldn't get perfectly along with all of them." She made a vain attempt to adjust her ruined hairstyle. "Speaking of which _—I'm_ going to go meet those last two. Do you want to come with me, or…?"

Henry gestured towards the three people standing in the middle of the room. "Actually, I was wondering if you knew who the girl with the blue dress and tights. She looks _really_ familiar."

"Oh, that's Nelly. She's nice, and… she sure knows more about history than _I_ do, so I think you might be into that."

Realization dawned on Henry's face. "Nelly, like… Eleanor Hitotsuki?"

"Uh, definitely the 'Hitotsuki' part."

"Yeah, Nelly's a nickname for Eleanor." Well, Nanako certainly was learning new things today. "Do you know who she _is,_ though?"

"A… student at Hope's Peak High School? The Super High School Level Antiquarian? Someone who probably doesn't need to drink coffee?" Nanako tried.

Henry shook his head. "No. Well, yeah—maybe? Anyways, her family's got this _huge_ collection of antiques they've been auctioning off recently," he said, a bit excitedly. "Most of it's pre-Taisho period, but they just sold an _authentic_ World War Two-era _Tirpitz_ —an Enigma Machine manufactured in Germany, specifically for use in Japan!"

Nanako just smiled up at him. "Henry-san, I think we're both aware that I have _no_ idea what that is."

"It's _rare,_ is what it is," said Henry. "A lot of orders for them weren't fulfilled, and the Japanese government lost track of most of the machines they _did_ manage to get. I can't even _think_ about how hard it would have been for a private collector to get one! I was planning a whole trip to England to visit the museum that bought it…"

"Well, she is the _Super High School Level_ Antiquarian. She must have her ways." Saying that aloud, it was a little hard for Nanako to believe that was the same girl who had told her about the nigh-ten-gale floors.

"Hmmm... Do you think I could ask her if she had anything else like that?"

"Henry-san, if you walk up to her and tell her everything you just told me, you will make her _day_."

"You think?"

"I _know_."

He looked back over at Nelly. "Well… if you say so. Catch you later, Mochizuki."

With that, Henry walked over to Asami, Yuki, and Nelly, and started speaking to the latter. It seemed Nanako had missed the mark a little bit—whatever Henry said seemed to Nelly made her entire _week._ She lit up like the sun, and Henry seemed equally as passionate, and the two entered a rapid-fire conversation about something Nanako was certain she did not understand. Yuki stood there and watched, seeming a bit relieved to have some of the social pressure lifted, while Asami looked around—and stopped directly on Nanako. She strode over from the history-buffs and sushi chef to the ghost whisperer, looking just a bit lost.

"Yo, Mochizuki!" she said, sidling right up next to Nanako. "You, uh, know what a _Tirpitz_ is?"

Nanako shrugged. "As much as anyone else who isn't Nelly-san or Henry-san does."

"Oh, sick. Thought I was the only one, for a second." Asami looked around the room. "So, looks like everyone showed up to your party, huh?"

"Pffft, that's one way you could look at it," said Nanako. "I'm glad everyone is in the same room, at least, so we can catch each other up. Speaking of which—did anything exciting happen after Shimizu-san and I left?"

"Eh, not really. I was still in the pantry when Nelly came in—turns out we're roommates, or something—and we just looked around there some more before we came here. Mochizuki, there is _so_ much food in there. Stuff I've never heard of—stuff I didn't even think you could _get_ in Japan."

Saito's conspiratorial ranting about not knowing where they were replayed in Nanako's mind, but she did her best to ignore it. "That sounds about right for a kitchen and pantry. Anything else?"

"Uhh… we met up with Tempura and Kennedy on the way here." She jerked a thumb over where Hyun-ki was standing. " _He_ left pretty quick, but the blond guy's great. Doesn't talk a lot, though, 'til he gets on something he really likes."

"That sounds a little bit like someone else I know," murmured Nanako.

"Said hello to Shimizu when they got here, talked to Tachibana and Watari for a hot second… and here we are!" Asami finished.

"Wait, wait, go back. What were those last two names?"

"Tachibana and Watari?"

"Yes! Them! I have no idea who those people are!" Nanako said, brightly. "Kurogane-san, do you know if they're here somewhere? It's harder to find unfamiliar faces in a room full of familiar ones than the other way around."

Asami affably swung her arm around Nanako's shoulders and began to lead her through the room, which Nanako did not mind in the slightest. "They're right over there, see 'em?"

Nanako did, indeed, see 'em. They sat side by side, the only people actually utilizing the sofas that occupied the lounge, looking at a large book that laid across both of their laps. The girl on left was eagerly gesturing to the pages, while the girl on the right sat patiently and listened to her.

"The one there is Watari, she's pretty cool," explained Asami. Little flighty, but she seems like she's having a good time. And _that's_ Tachibana! She's _nice_."

Nanako nodded along at those sparkling assessments of their personalities, though she was less focused on what Nanako was saying than what the two were wearing. Like the two floor materials of the lounge and the tools and architecture of the kitchen, each girl's appearance made the other seem downright anachronistic.

"Hmmm…?" The girl on the left side of the couch looked up as they approached. "Hey, hey, Momogane-chan is back! And she brought a friend!"

 _"Momogane-chan_?" muttered Nanako. She was suddenly, intimately aware of how Henry must have felt during her conversation with Shin'ichi.

Asami moved her arm and shrugged her shoulders. "That's her name for me. You know, _momo_ , instead of _kuro_ , 'cause of the pink jacket?"

"I… guess that makes sense?" Nanako conceded. But after a moment, her thoughts left the name and centered back on the girl who had apparently created it. Even without the other for comparison, this girl still looked like quite the fashion plate for a hip, modern look that didn't quite exist yet. Her choppy, blonde hair was further ruffled by a black baseball cap with the English word SAINT written across the front in large, white letters (Nanako was unreasonably proud that she could read that one). Her actual outfit, meanwhile, consisted of an oversized yellow sweater, black shorts that were basically covered by the aforementioned sweater as she sat on the couch, and bright yellow, two-or-three inch high platform shoes.

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Ichika Watari, SHSL Stained Glass Artist**

The finest art is only created with love, labor, and pane.

* * *

"I'm Watari Ichika, the Super High School Level Stained Glass artist," she said, and now that Nanako was close enough, she could see that the book had a photo of the stained glass display at the Moriya train station on its front cover. "Who are _you_? I need to know…"

"I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer," she replied. Ichika leaned over in her seat and looked Nanako up and down, apparently deep in thought. "I—I really am, I promise."

"Don't worry. I haven't known her very long," said the other girl. "But I think this is just Watari-san's... process."

* * *

 **Student Discovered: Nozomi Tachibana, SHSL Shrine Maiden**

Guardian of spiritual health, comforter of the weak and poor, occasional youkai exterminator.

* * *

The opposite of Ichika, her long, curly black hair was done up into a bun with a flower-shaped pin. Her outfit was something Nanako had seen many times before, but never on a _peer_ —a simple, loose white kimono jacket over a red _hakama,_ and white socks with plain, short, wooden _geta_. She was straight out of a visit to a shrine or festival—which made a lot of sense, considering.

"Please, excuse me. My name is Tachibana Nozomi, and I am the Super High School Level Shrine Maiden," she said, with a voice far too mature for her young-looking features. "It's good to meet you, Mochizuki-san. Your talent sounds so very… _fascinating._ "

"You know, is the _nicest_ thing someone has said about it since I woke up this morning."

"Mmmhmm!" exclaimed Ichika, suddenly straightening up. "And that's why you're Mochibukimi-chan!"

"I—what?" asked Nanako. It took her a second to realize that Ichika had just combined her surname with the word for 'eerie,' which wasn't actually what bothered her—nor was being given a nickname ten seconds after introducing herself. "My real name is already a mouthful! Why would you make it _longer_?"

"It's not about making your name _shorter_ , Mochibukimi-chan," said Ichika, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's about giving you something that _fits_. _Right_ , Mimi-chan?"

"She gets to be _Mimi-chan_?" asked Nanako. "That's fun, that's cute, that's _short._ "

"Yeah, but it's because she's a _good listener._ If _'mimi'_ was a longer word, it'd be a longer name!"

"I'm sure we can come to some sort of compromise, can't we?" asked Nozomi, gently. "Watari-san, wouldn't it be fine if we shortened it just a little more?"

"Here, lemme try," said Asami. "Mochi… buki… kimi... hmmm…" she gasped. "Got it! How does 'Chibu' sound? Ya know, like 'mo-CHIBU-kimi?'"

"That's… actually the name of the town my family's from," said Nanako.

Nozomi clapped her hands together. "Perfect! It's like it was fated, isn't it? 'Chibu' is a wonderful nickname."

Ichika, on the other hand, pouted a little bit. "I _guess_. Chibu… Chibu… o- _kay_ , Momogane-chan and Mimi-chan are right." She gestured to Nanako. "From now on and forever and ever, you're Chibu-chan to me!"

Again, this definitely wasn't the _worst_ thing that had happened to Nanako that morning, so she just kind of went with it. "Guess that's me! Uh, to you."

"I'm so glad we've got that all settled," said Nozomi, gently nudging their conversation back towards something more rational. "In any case, Mochizuki-san, I see you've already met Kurogane-san."

Asami nodded fervently. "We ate some snacks together, and I threw a seed at a bird."

"She told us about the snacks, as well," Nozomi continued, looking just a tiny bit worried, though Nanako couldn't tell whether it was due to the implications of a fully-stocked kitchen or Asami's mildly reckless behavior. "And then, she told us about the rooms, and that Watari-san and I are to share one… it's all a bit disturbing."

Nanako was about to share a sympathetic _tell me about it_ , but Ichika cut in first. "Awww, don't you _wanna_ share a room with me?"

"Oh, Watari-san, it's not _you_ I'm concerned about," Nozomi reassured her. "This is all just so _much,_ and we don't know the first thing about it. You see, Mochizuki-san, I worked at my family's shrine before I was invited to Hope's Peak. I'm used to a simpler life… much simpler than _this_."

"I moved from a small town to a big city a while back, so I understand what you're talking about," said Nanako. "This is kind of like that, actually—really overwhelming, I have no idea what's going on, Chishin is there..."

"I'm… sorry?" asked Nozomi.

"Never mind. It's just like then, Tachibana-san," Nanako said. "Except everything is worse this time around—but that's just how it is sometimes!"

Nozomi looked a just a tiny bit more happy, and Nanako considered _that_ mission accomplished. Despite her misgivings about literally every aspect of the situation they'd found themselves in, it was good to know she could dredge up some 'optimism' if it amused someone a little.

"Yeah!" said Ichika, apparently able to dredge up some optimism whenever she pleased. "It's okay for now, Mimi-chan! We have food, we have a bed, everyone here is nice…"

Nanako and Asami both made vague noises of mild disagreement.

"Fine! You guys are nice, and _I'm_ nice. So we're gonna find a way out, but even if it takes a little while, it's okay!"

"You're right, Watari-san. I'll try to act a bit more like you in the future," said Nozomi.

Ichika nodded sagely. "Mmhmm! If everyone acts like me, nothing will get us down."

"Not even, uh…" Asami trailed off. "What the hell'd you call 'em before? 'Jagged leadlines?'"

"Not even those!" said Ichika.

Her enthusiasm was definitely infectious, even if it wasn't entirely rational, and Nanako couldn't help but feel a bit more motivated. "So, where should we start on that whole 'finding our way out' part? The only door that looked like it could be an exit was… uh, blocked." She looked up at the ceiling, the high rafters now blanketed by mostly-silent crows. That… was _concerning_ , but she tried to keep up the energy. "What next?"

Ichika thought for a moment. "Ummm… well… oh! It's just like my teacher said! When you lose a piece, you should retrace your steps."

"What'd we _lose_?" asked Asami.

"Our memories, silly! If we try thinking _really_ hard about what happened before we woke up here, it might help us figure out where we are!"

"So we just… try to remember _harder_?" asked Nanako.

"Mmmhmm!"

To be fair, it wasn't like _Nanako_ had any brilliant deductions to make at this point. "Alright. Does anybody remember what time the entrance ceremony—"

At once, the entire room resounded with the mechanical voices of dozens of crows. _"CURRENT TIME: TEN TWENTY-NINE A.M."_

As the echo faded of the announcement faded, the entire room was silent, conversations interrupted by the Deafening Bird Clock. After a moment, Saito's voice, of all things, rang through the quiet of the room. "Did somebody use _those_ two words?"

Asami clapped a hand on Nanako's shoulder. "That'd be _her_!" she called back, cheerfully. "Mochizuki's the bird-whisperer, too!"

Slowly, the students of the sides of the room walked over to meet the four girls in the middle. If there was any time to assemble, Nanako figured, it might as well be after something like that. Saito was the first to arrive, followed by Asuka, Tsumugu, Hinawa, and Yusei. Nelly and Henry came over, Yuki trailing behind him. Musubu and Shin'ichi finished up a brief conversation before joining the crowd, and even Hyun-ki eventually made his way over to the fringe of the group, though he stayed firmly in the back. The only person who didn't come over was Viktoriya, who remained exactly where she'd been standing but kept her eyes sharply trained on the group.

"In the future, Mochizuki-san," Saito started, walking up next to her and Asami. "I would avoid doing that with so many crows around. Musubu-san and I found that even if you aren't addressing them directly, they're still capable of hearing and processing it. "

"I will bear that _deeply_ in mind, Himitsu-san."

And then, the birds started squawking again—not words, just senseless noises, loudly, uncontrollably, chaotically. Their wings flapped frantically, a few feathers dropping from the ceiling with the sheer force of it all.

The students, for their part, reacted largely the same way. Whispers and chatter broke out among them, and the group seemed to huddle a bit closer as a whole—whether for physical protection or to hear each other over the avian cacophony, though, Nanako couldn't be sure.

She tensed up, preparing to duck behind Saito or Asami or someone else equally tall and more-equipped to deal with the birds—but something strange happened.

Every crow, at once, stopped. And then every crow, at once, turned on the rafters to face the fireplace. And then a single crow flew through the door of the lounge, just inches above the heads of the tallest students, and landed gently on the mantle of the fireplace. It was bigger than the others, darker, with glossier feathers. But its most distinctive physical feature was its eyes—unlike the rest of the birds, with their black eyes, this one's were a bright, gleaming, blue.

And they would have stayed the most distinguished, had the blue-eyed crow not spoken. It said, with a mild, expressive voice just _barely_ tinted with the sound of its presumably mechanical origin,

" _Welcome, children, to your new home."_

* * *

 **Whoops! This was supposed to be all written up, like, two days ago! I made the executive decision to split this chapter into two parts because it was taking me** **a LONG time to write and also looked like it would end up being two or three times the size of the other chapters. On the plus side, "prologue part five: are you SURE there's a plot to this story?" should take less time than this chapter!**

 **PS: "Mochibukimi" can be loosely translated as "Mochi-spooky." But Nanako doesn't speak very much English, so that pun is lost on her.**


	6. Day 1: Convergence in the Manse, Part 5

A lot had happened to Nanako in the past hour-and-a-half. She'd woken up on the ground of a strange building she'd never seen, and didn't know how she'd gotten there She'd been attacked by a flock of birds, and been witness to another. She'd met, rapid-fire, fourteen of her classmates, and reunited with another she hadn't seen in a year. And yet, after everything, the blue-eyed crow _got to her._ With its almost-but-not-quite human voice that actually seemed to be addressing the situation at hand rather than occasionally spitting out easily-programmed information, she felt a sense of sheer dread falling over her. This was a situation so unfamiliar, so foreign, so… so damn _impossible_ that her gut reaction was to deny it completely.

She wanted to say something, but found she couldn't formulate words—with how dry her mouth had suddenly become, she wasn't sure she'd be able to physically speak, either. That didn't seem to matter, though, since their new friend was happy to speak up instead.

" _I want to address you all as a class. You, over there,"_ it looked over towards the where the lieutenant colonel was standing, " _Would you be so kind as to join the rest of your peers?"_

"I will not," Viktoriya said defiantly. She was still leaning up against the wall, a few feet away from where the blue-eyed crow was perched on the mantle. "I do not take orders from you."

" _And why is that_?"

"You are a _bird_."

" _That is a_ brilliant _observation, Viktoriya."_ Oh, _good_ , it knew her name. And even _better,_ it understood sarcasm. The blue-eyed crow was seeming more and more humanlike with every word it said—and despite her previous experiences regarding doors, that was more frightening to Nanako than anything the other birds had done. " _Nevertheless, I_ insist _you join them."_

"And if I do not?"

" _Then you_ — _and everyone else in this room_ — _will be made painfully aware of my control over these creatures."_ As it spoke, the soft, subtle sound of two-hundred wings rustling began to fill the room.

"But collective punishment is illegal under the Geneva Convention," Henry called, on the other side of the crowd from Nanako.

"Not to mention ineffective..." murmured Asuka, a few feet away from her.

If the blue-eyed crow _could_ hear Henry, Asuka, or any of the other protests beginning to form in the group of students, it ignored them. " _This is your final warning, Viktoriya. Join them now, or you'll all be punished for it._ " If Nanako didn't believe the bird before, she did now. The robotic cries of the rest of the crows resounded, and a few began to leave their ceiling perches and circle around the top of their heads. Even if these were the same warning-pecks as before—which she had no way of knowing—she did _not_ want to deal with that again, she'd have to say _something_ —

"Just come _over_ here, Viktoriya!" It was, of all people, Hinawa's voice over the sounds of the birds. "I already broke _one_ of these things today and I do _not_ want to do it again!"

Viktoriya's defiant stare broke for just a bit as she glanced between the bird and her classmates—well, mostly, her class _mate_ —and, after a moment, she acquiesced. With a final glare at the blue-eyed crow, she marched across the room, taking a place at the side of the crowd and making a clear effort to avoid eye contact with anybody in the group.

As she did so, the blue-eyed crow spread its wings and let out a single, clear ' _squawk_.' The birds that had been circling above the students returned to their perches on the rafters, and the rest quieted themselves once again. For one brief moment, the room was completely still—

And then, the blue-eyed crow lowered its wings with a flourish. " _Now_ _that you're all together as a class, are you children ready to listen?"_

"Do we have a _choice_?!" called Asami. Nozomi sat behind her on the couch, staring up at her worriedly.

" _Of course. You_ always _have a choice, if you're willing to accept the consequences of your actions._ " It raised a single wing, then dropped it as vague noises of protest erupted from the students, Nanako included. " _I see. Then… are you ready to listen_?"

A few seconds of uncomfortable quiet filled the air.

" _Excellent. As I was saying before I had to threaten… disciplinary action, I am_ delighted _to welcome you children to your new home. You'll be spending an indefinite amount of time here, so I would highly recommend acquainting yourself with your surroundings and making yourselves comfortable."_

"Umm… did it just say _indefinite?_ W-we're not going to be in here _that_ long, are we?" Nelly asked, voice wavering for the first time since Nanako had met her that morning.

"That sure is what _I_ heard," replied Shin'ichi, who was standing two or three people over from her. "But we don't really _know_ how long _indefinite_ 's going to be." Unlike Nelly and everyone else in the room, Nanako knew the drop of concern that had seeped its way into _Shin'ichi's_ voice was the first that had been there in _years._ At this point, though, that was just another cloud in the dense, uncomfortable fog of despondency that was settling over the room.

" _Now, now,"_ said the blue-eyed crow, after both of them. " _I understand you all might have concerns. After all, this_ is _quite the unfamiliar situation. But I assure you, during your time here, you'll be well cared for. I understand many of you have already found your accommodations, which have been furnished according to your preferences. Some of you have_ also _visited our kitchen and dining areas, and seen that they are both equipped to handle a group of this size with ease._

If nothing else, the bird was right about both of those things. But it was bad enough when Nanako had considered those implications in her head. Hearing it out loud, her worst fears confirmed by a talking, likely-mechanical bird… it would have seemed ridiculous, if she hadn't seen enough wild nonsense to believe what it was saying.

" _Further rooms have also been opened for your enjoyment, laundry facilities provided for convenience…"_ The crow whipped its head around, as only birds could do. " _And this room, as you've all taken to calling a 'lounge' and using as a meeting space… was it not generous of us to provide you these amenities?"_

"Yeah, nothing says 'generosity' like trapping us here against our will," muttered Tsumugu, and Musubu shot him a look from across the crowd that, somehow, simultaneously warned him not to be so hot-headed while completely agreeing with his intentions. Such was the power of twinhood, Nanako supposed.

" _Well_ , _these kind gestures don't come without regulations of our own,"_ continued the blue-eyed crow. Nanako wasn't sure if it was answering Tsumugu, or completely ignoring him. " _Though you'll be able to listen to these rules at any time through one of the many corvid liaisons that will be remaining with you throughout your stay, I request that you all listen carefully to avoid future confusion."_ It raised both wings, but unlike before, every perched crow simply remained in its spot.

" _Rule 1:_ _ **Violence against myself or any of your corvid liaisons will not be permitted.**_ _Violation of this rule will result in punishment."_

Hinawa exhaled sharply, but said nothing.

"I can't imagine it counts as 'violence against them' if they attacked us first, Hikaru-san," said Yusei. He did not sound completely confident in that statement.

" _I_ am _aware that this rule has_ already _been broken. However, given the extenuating circumstances as well as your previous unfamiliarity with these rules, I am willing to forgive your infraction_ , Hinawa _."_

Somehow, _Nanako_ shuddered at that. She'd talked to Hinawa all of three times, and even _she_ felt more comfortable using the sniper's first name than hearing it from the crow.

" _Which leads me into Rule 2:_ _Certain doors in these halls are guarded by some of your corvid liaisons._ _ **Attempting to enter protected doors will result in punishment.**_ _Repeated audio and visual warnings will given by your corvid liaisons before punishment is administered."_

The blue-eyed crow was far away enough from the group that it was impossible to tell for sure, but Nanako felt like it was staring straight at her. She took a half-step closer to Saito. " _I am aware_ this _rule has_ also _been violated this morning._ Twice _. And, as with the first rule, I'm willing to forgive these transgressions, due to your prior ignorance. Now that you're familiar with the warnings your corvid liaisons will give you, I sincerely hope you don't choose to violate this rule again."_

Nanako, at least, was not planning to do so.

" _Rule 3: Be respectful of the accomodations provided to you._ _ **Purposeless destruction of property by human students living here will be punished."**_

"Wait, I need to clarify something," Musubu cut in, then she and her brother shared another look, one that Nanako couldn't quite parse. She nodded slightly towards Tsumugu, then faced back towards the blue-eyed crow. "Not allowing 'purposeless' destruction of property implies there are some kinds of property destruction you're okay with, doesn't it?"

" _An astute observation, Musubu. It's quite easy to see why your sleuthing talents were so sought-after. You see, sometimes you trip and break the plates you were carrying. Sometimes, you knock a vase off of the shelf. I am_ more _than willing to forgive sincere accidents. Furthermore, you might..."_ the blue-eyed crow trailed off. " _Well,_ that _will be discussed later._

 _At present, Rule 4: The nature of these otherwise wonderful accommodations means that natural sunlight will be, for the most part, inaccessible. While the numerical time can be learned at any point through your liaisons,"_ as they were all _very_ much aware, " _levels of artificial light will be adjusted throughout the day, with significant changes demarcating the beginning of the morningtime and nighttime._ _ **Certain rooms and amenities will only be available during certain times of the day, so please make liberal use of your crow liaisons to keep track of the hour."**_

The blue-eyed crow paused, expectantly. " _Are there any other_ clarifications _that need to be made?"_

The group of students stayed mostly quiet, soft whispers of confusion and indignance notwithstanding.

" _Wonderful. Then, please allow me to present Rule 5:_ _ **Leaving your new home without permission from myself is expressly forbidden.**_ _Any and all attempts to do so will be punished_ _ **.**_ _And to avoid any misunderstandings…_ none _of you have my permission._

And there it was. Their time in this place wasn't just 'indefinite,' it was controlled, deliberate. Another round of heavy silence fell over the room, weighed down by the shock of hearing their conditions laid out in front of them so plainly, and the circumstances of those 'conditions' in the first place.

" _Do you all_ —"

"HEY!" Asami's voice was so loud and so sudden that Nanako couldn't help but step back again, bumping into the equally shocked-looking Saito. Even Ichika, who she admittedly had known for a shorter time than almost everyone else in the room, appeared uncharacteristically thrown-off. Nozomi, on the other hand, just seemed _really_ worried. "The hell are you on about?! You really think we're just gonna sit here and _beg_ for you to let us out?" The second the words left her mouth, the birds perched above them began to shift about restlessly. Asami was either too angry to notice or too angry to care. "How about _you_ take your dumb _rules_ and shove them straight up your—"

"Kurogane-san, please," Nozomi's voice was pleading, but strained. "I don't know if this is the right time to—"

Asami looked back at her over her shoulder. "Seriously, Tachibana? Are you hearing this thing talk?! Don't you want to get out of here and—"

"Of _course_ I do! I'm just worried about what it will do if you—"

" _Now, Nozomi."_ At the sound of the blue-eyed crow, both the shrine maiden in question and the skater standing in front of her tensed up. The crows above them also stopped moving. " _Asami is well within her rights to ask speak up, regardless of her… tone. And she_ will _be pleased to hear that there_ is _a way to leave this place, should she desire… or should anyone else._ "

Nanako had never seen a bird smile before—and really, she wasn't seeing it now. But the blue-eyed crow gently lowered its wings, puffed out its feathers, and lowered its head just a bit so its beak pointed straight at the students: the closest thing to a menacing grin it could physically muster.

" _Rule 6_ _ **: Any one person will be granted permission to leave this place by successfully killing a fellow student."**_

…

...Killing?

" _The method in which this is achieved doesn't matter. Strangulation, drowning, stabbing, clubbing… deliberate property damage will be excused, as well, so long as it's done with the means and intentions of killing one of your peers."_

It sounded unreal, impossible on a such a level that Nanako couldn't even comprehend it, much less believe she was a part of it. Yet again, silence fell over the group—but only for a moment. In an instant, protests began to erupt from the group, sparked by what was clearly either a curse or a _very_ harsh Russian rebuke from Viktoriya.

Almost every student—Nanako included—had _something_ to say, some desperate mixture of fear, disbelief, and anger. And so did the crows: as the students raised their voices, so too did the ruffling feathers, flapping wings, and sharp vocalizations of the corvids increase, louder and and louder until the mixture of bird and human noise together drowned out their logical, conscious thoughts—

The blue-eyed crow raised both its wings again. At once, every single bird ceased their noise and motion. The students, out of fear or surprise or both, did the same.

" _Now that you've all been made aware of the code of conduct to be followed while you're living here, I hope you're all ready to begin your stay in_ —"

"Like _hell_ we are!" shouted Asami, again the first one to recover from the sheer whiplash of the situation. "You expect us to just _listen_ to your dumb rules?"

"Y...yeah!" yelled Ichika, apparently emboldened. She gently placed her book in Nozomi's lap and then jumped off the couch to her feet. "Kurogane-san is right! We don't have to listen to you at all! I'll fight a bird! I'll—I'll fight _ten_ birds!"

"Regardless of however many _corvid liaisons_ you may have at your command, there are sixteen of us here and only _one_ of you." Hyun-ki's voice was quieter than the others, more controlled, but just as scathing, and accusatory in a biting way that Nanako was glad wasn't directed towards her. "What's _stopping_ us from eliminating the crows at their _source_?"

Nanako would have loved to hear the answer to that question, if the blue-eyed crow hadn't put its wings down and assumed the same menacing expression as it had before telling them, literally, to murder each other.

" _Oh, you'd like to see what's stopping you? Besides the swarm of birds… yes, I do suppose I could see some of you charging through_ that. _Well, then I suppose a live demonstration is in order… one that requires a volunteer."_ The blue-eyed crow took one of its wings like an arm and gestured towards the group of students, passing over them slowly. It looked like nobody, regardless of how they'd spoken up before, was quite ready to openly subject themselves to the bird's whims for something like this. " _Now, who hasn't been participating…?"_

It stopped suddenly, wing still outstretched, pointing towards the students—or, it seemed, one of the students. " _Yuki. Would you join me by the fireplace?"_

A few of the students gasped as he said it. The itamae himself whimpered and hugged his arms against his chest, but seemed too surprised to say anything aloud. The people around him, conversely, were _not_. Hyun-ki in particular, all of the previous sprite drained from his countenance and replaced with something a bit more concerned, shoved his way from the edge of the crowd to where the Yuki was standing. "Hold on, let me do it."

" _No, no, Hyun-ki. You've already had your turn to speak up. It's only fair that Yuki get a chance to participate now, wouldn't you say?"_ The blue-eyed crow gestured its outstretched wing towards the ceiling.

Yuki looked terribly frightened, but did _not_ say. It didn't seem to matter, though, as four crows flew silently down from the rafters and straight into the crowd, causing a minor wave of chaos to emanate out from where Yuki was standing. They were single-mindedly focused on ushering the itamae from the middle of the crowd to the fireplace. When they completed their mission a few moments later and flew back to join their brethren in the rafters, Yuki had gone from 'frightened' to 'absolutely petrified.'

Nanako could not blame him.

" _Was that so difficult? Please, Yuki, would you light the fireplace?"_

The itamae stood there, unmoving, but looking between the crowd of increasingly-concerned students and the blue-eyed crow.

" _Don't worry, it's quite simple. Just take one of the long matches from the box next to me on the mantle."_

Hands visibly trembling even from where Nanako was standing, Yuki did so.

" _Now, strike it against the box and light it."_

It took him a few tries, but Yuki did so.

" _The fireplace is already prepared, so just used the match to light the kindling near the bottom of the woodpile."_

Standing as far away from the fireplace as the hearth match would allow, Yuki did so.

It wasn't like any fireplace Nanako had seen or heard of, because the second the flame from the match so much as licked the air around the kindling, the entire hearth _roared_ to life. Yuki froze in front of it, still holding the lit match. The blue-eyed crow squawked loudly, its first bird-like vocalization since it had landed on the mantle.

" _It's time to answer your questions. It's time to show you exactly why I know you won't_ bother _attacking me, regardless of consequence."_

The blue-eyed crow began to caw again, but this time, it did not stop, even as it spread its wings and departed from the mantle. It flew into the middle of the room, over the heads of the students, under the rafters of perfectly-still birds, and back towards the hearth—

And, missing Yuki by half an inch, straight into the fire.

It flared up for a moment, then died back down, engulfing the blue-eyed crow in fire. The bird just continued to squawk, loudly, even as the heat melted whatever internal parts were allowing it to do so, popping and crackling as the flames seared through metal and feather alike. Finally, as its voice became terrifyingly reminiscent of a singing childhood toy that had run low on batteries, the bird mercifully stopped its sounds and and faded unrecognizably into the fire.

"What. The heck. Was _that?_ "

It wasn't Asami this time—rather, it was Nanako herself, simply unable to control her reaction to _that._

"It just… immolated itself. But to what end?" asked Saito, conspiratorial tones in his voice more justified than they had ever been before.

" _To this end."_ A single, 'regular' crow flew down from the ceiling, landing on the mantle where the blue-eyed crow had been just a few moments before. It spread its wings out wide, and to Nanako and everyone else's surprise, its feathers seemed to darken a few shades, to a deep black that gleamed in the firelight. Then it tilted its head down, and the truly damning transformation occurred—its eyes, originally a black color like the rest of the crows, slowly filled with light-blue pigment. " _Your corvid liaisons provide me bodies in a literal sense, in addition to metaphorical. The continued existence of this uncountable swarm of crows ensures_ my _existence as well. Do you all understand?"_

For a moment, nobody moved. Then Yuki, still right in front of the mantle and inches away from the crow immolation-slash-resurrection, fell to his knees, still silent but with a shattered expression plastered across his face.

" _Excellent. Then, farewell. I_ do _hope you all make the most of your accommodations here._ " The new blue-eyed crow took off from the mantle, across the room and through the door to the lounge, leading ninety-eight percent of the 'corvid liaisons' with it in a cacophonous migration out of the room. The remainder stayed up in the rafters, moving about noiselessly as they had before this whole mess had started.

This whole mess…

Half the students stayed in the large clump or left the room, while half, including Nanako, rushed over to the fireplace, unsure of what to do but fairly certain they should try _something._ Still, though, only Hyun-ki and Asuka approached Yuki directly, and only the latter seemed to have an idea of what to do in a situation like this.

Asuka knelt down next to Yuki,gently removed the lit match from his hands, and gave it to Hyun-ki, who stared at it expressionlessly for a second and then threw it into the still-crackling fire. "Tempura-san," they began, "are you alright?"

The itamae said nothing—it seemed the stress of the situation had rendered him nonverbal. Nanako couldn't blame the poor guy for this, either.

"That's okay," said Asuka, gently, apparently reaching the same conclusion. "Can I see your hands, then?"

Yuki held out his still-shaking hands, which were covered in grey ash, probably from the initial impact of the bird-roast.

"Hmmm… okay. It doesn't look like you have any burns. That's good. Do you want to wash up?"

Yuki nodded.

"Great! I know there's a sink in the kitchen. Do you want to go there?"

Yuki nodded again.

"Sounds good. Do… you want Kennedy-san to come with us?"

Yuki looked up at Hyun-ki, then nodded a third time.

"Alright, then. Kennedy-san, can you walk us to the kitchen?" they asked, brushing themself off, getting to their feet, and handling the entire situation with the aplomb of a seasoned teacher—or tutor, Nanako supposed. Yuki also rose unsteadily, still quiet and pale but looking far less like he was about to throw up.

"...Yeah, of course."

Asuka waved to Nanako as they led the three to the kitchen; Hyun-ki did not, and Yuki just stared straight ahead. At the very least, they seemed to have _that_ situation under control, which just left… everything else.

...Where were they even supposed to begin? The remaining students began to clump together again, though whether it was for safety in numbers or just out of sheer _disbelief_ , she wasn't sure. She'd seen and heard everything, it had happened all of ten feet in front of her, but it all still seemed so remarkably _fake_.

Perhaps Nanako could start with the sniper standing right behind her, who—despite everything—seemed to be sighing with relief. Did she know something Nanako did not? "You… seem to be taking this pretty well, Hikaru-san."

"This, like… that?" Hinawa pointed at the mantle where the both blue-eyed crows had been perched a minute ago. "Not at all. I just focus on my problems one at a time. And it looks like my roommate's pretty alright at dealing with the more… sensitive stuff, so that's one less issue I have to deal with myself. Now I've just gotta focus on everything else."

Oh, good, they were on the same page. "Well? Do you have any ideas for the first problem _you're_ going to deal with? Because _I'm_ pretty lost."

"I…" Hinawa's gaze shifted over towards the loose group of students who hadn't run over to the fireplace—specifically, to the member who still insisted on remaining by herself. "I should probably address _that._ " She walked over towards the lieutenant colonel, and Nanako trailed behind, not really sure what else she should be doing.

Viktoriya did not look _thrilled_ at their approach. "You. _Both_ of you. What do you want?"

Hinawa scratched at the back of her head, clearly not certain about what the answer to that question really _was._ "Look, uh… about what happened back there…"

"If you have come to boast to me, there is no need. I have gauged the ability of our captors. I will not hesitate in my actions regarding them anymore."

"Wait, you won't?" Nanako asked. "Because I saw all that too, and still think _I'm_ going to have some hesitation—"

"I was not talking to you. There is nothing for you to boast about in this situation."

She wasn't wrong. Nanako took a half-step back.

"I'm not here to brag," said Hinawa. "I just want to make sure we didn't start off on the wrong foot after all that, I guess. Not with the whole…" _Killing thing,_ Nanako could tell she wasn't quite ready to say out loud. "Not with everything going on right now."

Viktoriya looked her up and down. "Mmm. It is unwise to make enemies when your peers have been given ample motivation to kill one another, is it not?"

"No—well, yeah, I mean—look, it's—"

"Hikaru-san, if you are concerned about first impressions… do not be. I have made every judgement of you necessary, for now."

Hinawa blinked. "We haven't even had a full _conversation_ yet."

"I've led squadrons with less information than that."

"We aren't—this isn't—"

"I will depart now, Hikaru-san." She nodded curtly towards Nanako. "Mochizuki-san." Without waiting for a response, Viktoriya turned and walked away.

Hinawa, meanwhile, turned to Nanako. "That… didn't go as well as I'd hoped it would."

The ghost whisperer shrugged. "To be fair, that was kind of like the first conversation Viktoriya-san and I had, too. Besides, how did you _think_ it was going to go?"

Hinawa looked like she wanted to say something to that, then apparently thought better of it, shut her eyes, and sighed. "I don't know. I just thought I should say _something._ "

"Is that one problem taken care of?"

"It's one problem _addressed_."

Nanako shrugged again, but more emphatically. "Well, there you are! One down…"

"...and everything else to go," Hinawa finished. "Guess I'll move onto the next thing, then. That'll be…" She scanned around the room, gaze stopping on the mantle. "...Making sure Shiroma doesn't burn himself."

"What? You don't think he's—oh, _wow_ , he's really considering it."

"I'm gonna go prevent a disaster. See you later, Mochizuki." She half-jogged to where Yusei was leaning dangerously close to the hearth, her voice fading as she got farther away. "You _know_ it's not actually _dead_ —there isn't even that much of it left—at _least_ use one of the matches…"

She passed between the Kaminaga twins on the way to the thanatologist, and the two of them glanced at each other—then at Nanako. They both walked over to her, wearing matching expressions of confusion and concern.

"Do you know what she meant by 'not actually dead?'" asked Tsumugu.

"That's just because they're robots, so I guess they can't really _die_ ," said Nanako. "It's not like I'm going around and listening to the spirits of androids, you know?"

"Riiiiiiiiight," said Tsumugu. He didn't physically roll his eyes, but Nanako could hear the sentiment in his voice. Somewhat unsurprisingly, that seemed to be a common attitude among the scientists around her. "But I guess that's really the only way to explain the 'collective consciousness' they have."

"Well, we actually figured out before we got here, when Hikaru-san broke one of the birds and Shiroma-san thought it was dead and cut it open."

Tsumugu looked back at the pair in question—Hinawa now watching with an exasperated look on her face as Yusei underwent the herculean task of trying to move aside entire logs with a single, long match—then looked at Nanako, and raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, them!"

Musubu cut in at that point. "That's how you investigate! Take chances, make mistakes, get messy…"

"C'mon, Musubu, you know that's _my_ line."

"Ha! Yeah, but it fits me, too…" she smiled at Nanako, then threw her arm around her twin. It was the first time Nanako had seen them side by side—their features were similar enough that anybody off the street would be able to tell they were twins, though Tsumugu was notably more gaunt than his sister. "Speaking of which, Mochisuki-san! I never got a chance to thank you for finding my brother before he got into too much trouble."

"Geez, you did this with Shimizu-san, too," Tsumugu muttered, though he didn't actually seem too upset about it, or try to move away from Musubu. "I found _them_!"

"Yeah, Musubu-san! He was looking around, just like you. _You_ found some blankets and board games..." The wardrobe she'd been searching was within eyesight—had it really only been a few hours since the four of them had met in the lounge that morning? "...and Tsumugu-san found Shimizu-san and me!"

"Well, you know science journalists. They're their own brand of investigators. Right, Tsumugu?"

"Pfft, yeah," answered Tsumugu. "Most of our investigations take place in labs and books, though."

Nanako peeked over at Yusei and Hinawa, and the spot where Asuka and Hyun-ki and Yuki had been, and around at the other students. The atmosphere was… surprisingly light, for what they'd all just been told. Maybe they could all joke around like this because it hadn't sunk in quite yet. "So, this is going to end up being a dumb question, but… any chance the twin detectives found out anything about what's going on?"

"Ahh…" Musubu put her arms back down by her sides. "I _wish_ we did. Himitsu-san and I looked around a lot, but I think you know as much as we do."

"She and Shimizu-san know where to go if they have any questions about the storage closet in that hallway," said Tsumugu, gesturing at Nanako. "But, yeah, I didn't really find out much, either. Not about where we are, or... " He looked vaguely over in the direction of the mantle, "what _that_ was all about."

Musubu nodded in agreement. "I think the important thing now is not to jump to any conclusions."

"Like you said while we were here before?" asked Nanako.

"Pre- _cisely_!" said Musubu. "Nothing that bird told us has been backed up by any more reliable sources yet, so we have to keep focusing on the information we know for sure."

"Do we know _anything_ for sure?" asked Nanako. "Other than 'getting out of here isn't going to be as easy as we hoped'?" Oof. Hearing that out loud hurt, but saying it stung a little more.

"Well, we learned a lot from just a few minutes ago, right?" Musubu started. "Even if we can't necessarily believe what the crows _said_ to us, we know what we saw. It looks like they all have the capability to comprehend human speech, even if only one of them can talk to us at a time."

"And they're _definitely_ not fireproof," added Tsumugu. "Or waterproof, if what you told us is true."

"If what I told you is— _ugh_. I just _realized."_ Nanako smacked her forehead.

"What is it?" asked Musubu.

"This means Himitsu-san was _right,_ " complained Nanako, only half-joking.

"What are you talking about?" Tsumugu asked, as a grin spread across his sister's face. "What? What am I missing, here?"

"Looks like our resident conspiracy theorist was completely correct about the crows," Musubu explained, amusement evident in her tone.

"Completely is a _strong_ word," clarified Nanako. "He also said he thinks they're from a big corporation or the government trying to make… what did he say… 'extensive breeding to create an artificially-augmented super-crow hybrid?"

"Oh, awesome," said Tsumugu. "Glad to know we have another rational voice contributing to the discussion."

Musubu chuckled at that. "He's not _that_ bad. In fact, he wouldn't be half-bad as a sleuth! He's great at looking around, he just needs to work on…"

"…Not jumping to the weirdest and worst conclusion after he finds anything?" guessed Tsumugu.

"Mmmhmm," said Musubu. That sounded right to Nanako, too. "Make sure you let him know, Mochizuki-san. Er, well, he probably figured it out after…" The amusement drained from her face as she gestured vaguely towards the hearth. The surprise and immediacy of the situation was beginning to wear off, leaving everyone with nothing but the sense of dread the blue-eyed crow's announcement had caused.

The whole topic was a bit of a downer, which is why Nanako tried to gently pull it a different direction. "Well, Miss Investigator and Mister Science Investigator…"

"Those are _almost_ our talents," Tsumugu said.

"What do you two think you'll do next? Look around some more?"

Musubu shrugged. "Gathering more information never _hurts,_ but I don't think that's the _most_ helpful thing right now. We split up and look for clues, but afterwards, everyone comes back and puts their heads together." She nodded towards her brother. "And right now, we have a lot of… 'clues' to deal with."

"Wait, Musubu-san, didn't you say we couldn't trust what the crow had to say?" asked Nanako.

"She said we shouldn't be jumping to _conclusions_ ," Tsumugu said. "Whether or not it's telling the truth, though, we have a lot to discuss."

"Us, like you two?"

"Us, like everyone. That's sort of what I was hoping _this_ would be," Musubu admitted. "But there were so many people, and so many of us hadn't met each other yet, it sort of turned into a social event…"

"That was hijacked by a crow," Tsumugu finished.

"So what do you think we should do?" asked Nanako. "Just, run and find everyone who left and tell them to come back?" Yuki _probably_ wasn't in the position to do so just yet, and that meant Hyun-ki and Asuka weren't likely, either. Viktoriya didn't seem particularly interested in conversation, and Hinawa and Yusei were still busy by the fireplace. Indeed, other than those two, Musubu, Tsumugu, and Nanako, most of the students had filtered out of the lounge—which Nanako sort of understood, given what just happened.

Musubu, apparently, was ready to solve the mental algebra Nanako was still processing. "No, definitely not now. When the initial shock of an announcement like that wears off, it's hard to be around people you don't know and trust, don't you think? Tsumugu and I have each other, but everyone else in here is one step away from being a stranger."

"Not quite," said Nanako, still sort of wondering if _that_ was a good thing or not. "But you're right for the most part. If not now, then when would everyone _want_ to get together?"

"Well, that's pretty simple! There's one room in here that _everyone_ is going to try and visit at least once today."

"The… oh, the kitchen!" Nanako exclaimed. "Because we're all going to have to eat."

"Ex- _actly_ ," said Musubu, brightly. "So we just have to make sure everyone's there around the same time. If we all have a meal together, we'll all feel better about each other and more ready to talk about this."

"How are we going to do that?" asked Nanako. "Do we just _ask_ everyone?"

"Well… it would make sense for _you_ to do that."

"Wait, what? _Me_?" Nanako looked at Tsumugu, then gestured at herself. "She's talking about _me_?"

"Well, Mochizuki-san, I don't think she's talking about me," Tsumugu said.

"Think about it, Mochizuki-san!" Musubu started. "Even if I'm the one who set up the meeting in in the beginning, you're the one who got half our class to meet up in here."

"I—sort of, I guess? Nelly-san and Kurogane-san are just pretty agreeable in general, Shiroma-san and Hikaru-san and I had a weird bonding moment, Henry-san is my roommate, and… if I'm being realistic, I don't think _I_ was the reason Tempura-san and Kennedy-san showed up," Nanako rambled.

"Aww, don't sell yourself short. Tsumugu told _me_ Shimizu-san told _him_ that you had your own TV show. Just use some of that show-host charm," said Musubu. Nanako was genuinely unable to tell how much of that statement was sincere and how much was light teasing.

"Unless it's _all_ reserved for the ghosts," said Tsumugu. _His_ words were much more clear-cut.

"I, well… okay," Nanako conceded. To be fair, she _was_ more skilled at talking to people than solving mysteries. "What should I tell them?"

"Just let everyone know we're all having dinner at… I don't know, seven?"

"Seven," Tsumugu agreed.

Well, at least the first two people would be easy to find. "Hey! Shiroma-san! Hikaru-san!" Nanako called, still very much in front of Tsumugu and Musubu. "We're all eating dinner at seven tonight! Does that sound okay?"

"Sure, yeah, fine!" Hinawa shouted back, not looking over. Yusei didn't answer, as he was clearly too busy extracting the charred, half-melted remnants of the robot formerly known as the blue-eyed crow from the fire with his rubber gloves and some creative use of his calipers.

"Well, that's one down. Shiroma-san will probably come too, actually, so pencil it in as two."

But both Kaminaga twins were now distracted by the scene at the hearth. "Musubu, do you think we should go check that out?" Tsumugu asked.

"It can't hurt, right? We could find… _something_ helpful before dinner," said Musubu. And, to be fair, his connection to scientific research made Tsumugu the closest thing to a roboticist the group had… sort of. "Mochizuki-san, do you know what you have to do?"

"I'll let everyone know what's going on, Musubu-san." She watched as they both headed over to the fireplace, Musubu striking up a conversation-slash-interview with Hinawa and Tsumugu kneeling next to Yusei on the floor and examining the burned bird. Nanako herself walked towards the exit to the lounge, figuring she might as well start handing out dinner invitations.

After all, it's not like she really knew what else she should be doing.

* * *

Nanako's afternoon passed much like her morning: She walked the palatial halls looking for her classmates, with only vague knowledge of what was going on and a hypothetical plan to discuss things in the future. She had assumed that knowing their names, identities, and, where they were literally living would be helpful in her endeavor.

She was wrong.

It wasn't as easy as walking up to everyone and telling them to meet in the kitchen in eight hours. For starters, everyone had scattered to the four winds after the initial dispersal of the crowds, and while there weren't even _that many_ rooms for them to go to, some of her classmates were surprisingly difficult to find in the first place. When she'd leapt the hurdle of actually _finding_ them, she had to _convince_ them, which… was easier said than done. As it turned out, without the distraction of the fireplace, most people's minds wandered straight to the whole "killing each other" thing, which… made them a _bit_ less receptive to suggestions of hanging out.

And Nanako was well aware of that, as over the course of her hours-long-search-with-a-brief-stop-for-a-bunch-of-snacks-she-called-lunch, she'd only managed to successfully talk to a few of her classmates. She reflected on this for a moment as she knocked on bedroom door number six for the _fifth time in two hours_. "Okay, Kennedy-san, I'm actually pretty sure you're in there, because you sure aren't anywhere else! You don't have to open your door, you can just—I don't know, yell through it, or something!"

" _I actually don't even have to do_ that _, Mochizuki!"_ Ah, progress! Sort of.

"You don't _have_ to! But you could at least tell me you're _listening_!"

" _And you could take me not answering the door after you knocked_ four _separate times as_ — _wait. No, Tempura, I'll stop yelling, you don't have to_ —"

Nanako heard the light footsteps approach the door, and watched as it slowly creaked open, revealing the entire room: Hyun-ki, sitting cross-legged on his bed and not looking happy to see her, and Yuki, holding the door open and looking… better. Less pale and shaken, at least. It made sense; he'd had a few hours to recover. "Tempura-san, you're…"

He nodded. "I-I'm okay. Much better. Thank you."

Nanako smiled. "I'm really glad to hear that. I'm sorry to bother _you_ after everything that's happened, but I'm just letting everyone know that we're all going to eat dinner together around seven."

Yuki's demeanor shifted _immediately_. "Do you know who is _cooking_?"

"Oh, um…" Nanako been so focused on getting people to eat, she'd kind of overlooked _what_ they'd be eating. And so had everyone else, apparently, seeing as Yuki was the first person to actually ask her. "I don't actually know. Musubu-san might have something planned? She didn't mention anything about cooking, and I kind of assumed we'd all just fend for ourselves, but—"

Like his roommate had done before, Yuki shut the door in the middle of Nanako's sentence. Unlike his roommate, he opened it a few seconds later, the pouches and hooks on his belt now full of spices and seasonings and _three knives._ "There… there is less than two hours, but I can make enough for everybody, i-if I start soon!"

For the first time, Nanako and Hyun-ki seemed to be in agreement—well, less agreement, and more mutual shock at the sudden determination Yuki seemed to develop.

"W-where did you get those knives?" Nanako asked.

"He's a _professional_ _chef_. Of course he'd have some knives with him wherever he went," replied Hyun-ki, though he was too surprised to really lay into the snarky attitude.

Yuki nodded seriously. "I am _always_ ready to do my job." He turned back to look at his roommate. "Kennedy-san, will you help?"

"I only really know how to cook Korean food," Hyun-ki replied.

"Can you chop vegetables?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Then!" started Yuki, with resolve. "You can help!"

"...Guess I'm helping, then," he still seemed just a little thrown off by the itamae's attitude, but not necessarily upset.

"Mochizuki-san." Besides shocking, Nanako had to admit it almost was a little bit funny, seeing fire in the eyes of someone so typically reserved and… young-looking. "I… I will make a wonderful dinner, I promise! So, please, make sure everyone comes to eat it."

It seemed like Musubu was more right than even she might have realized—even in the face of something this worrisome, nothing brought people together like food. "You _got_ it, Tempura-san. Seven o' clock, we'll all be there."

With that, Yuki gave her a nod, and headed off down the hall towards the kitchen. Hyun-ki followed close behind, and instead of a nod, gave her a Look. Nanako gave him a Look right back. The door closed behind them, and she was left with her mental checklist. That was two more down, and while actually getting to them had been an afternoon-long pain, they, at least, had been pretty easy to convince.

That left… three. Nelly, Nozomi, Shin'ichi, none of whom lived in the same room or, to Nanako's knowledge, had even interacted before this point.

Well… at least she had another hour-and-change before dinner.

"Hey, Nanako!"

Aaaaaaand it looked like that might be all she needed, as Shin'ichi came striding down the east hall towards her. It was nice that she didn't have to be proactive the _whole_ time. "Chishin, what's—oookay, what's going on?" He'd thrown his arm around her shoulders a la Musubu and Tsumugu—just as affably but far more purposefully—turned her around, and began to lead her towards the laundry room at the other end of the hallway. This was far from the first time this had happened, though, so she didn't bother doing anything but following along.

"So, I know you're not a grief counselor, but you _do_ play one on TV," he said.

"Seriously? I _know_ you've seen my show before."

"Every single episode, sweetheart, and I _do_ appreciate the acting that goes into it." Nanako opened her mouth to protest, but Shin'ichi kept talking. "Look, all I'm saying is that one of us _doesn't_ deal with heartbroken, crying people once a week from ten to eleven AM Japan Standard Time, and one of us _does_.

"Where are you going with this, Chishin?"

He pointed at the laundry room, now just ahead of them. "Right here."

Nanako was both ready and willing to make some sarcastic remark about Shin'ichi being so tied up in the industry he didn't know how to do his own laundry, but stopped herself quickly when they reached the threshold of the laundry room and heard, just barely, soft sobbing from the other end of the room. She looked up at Shin'ichi and tilted her head.

He nodded back down at her, then took a step back. "Tachibana-kun, Nelly-tan! I brought a… _friend_."

"Ka—Shin-san, who's there?" The sobbing continued, but Nozomi, who clearly had _not_ been crying, stood up from beside one of the washers. "Oh, Mochizuki-san. Um… hello."

Nanako put one hand up, a bit awkwardly. "Hi?"

Nozomi looked down at where she'd been, out of Nanako's sight. "Nelly-san? Did you hear that? Mochizuki-san is here, too."

The sobbing quieted for just a moment, but picked up again soon after.

Shin'ichi gently prodded her in the back, and Nanako frowned back up at him. " _Why am I here?"_ she whispered.

" _I just told you. You deal with this kind of thing, don't you?"_ he whispered back.

" _Not really!"_ At this point, it was less whispering and more speaking harshly under her breath. " _I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Nelly-san isn't crying over the recent departure of a loved one."_

" _You're still better equipped to handle this than me or half of the other people here."_

" _Better than_ Tachibana-san _? A_ literal _religious pillar of the community?"_

Shin'ichi looked over at where Nozomi was standing, looked back down at Nanako, and shrugged.

Nanako pinched the bridge of her nose. " _Okay, fine, let's_ … let's say how Nelly-san is doing," she said, returning to a normal tone of voice and a mildly exaggerated positive demeanor.

"Aw, that's the spirit," said Shin'ichi, and Nanako made a mental note to get him back for what she was pretty sure was an inopportune pun.

She walked over towards the end of the row of washing machines, to where Nozomi was standing, and to where she could could see Nelly…

...and the antiquarian looked like a wreck. She was curled into a ball, knees tucked into her pinafore, head down, and wracked with quiet sobs.

"Nelly-san has… been like this for a few hours now," Nozomi explained. "She's calmer than she was before, but she hasn't moved since I got here."

"Do you know what's wrong?" Nanako asked, a bit pathetically, like the answer wasn't 'the situation and atmosphere and literally every single aspect of the two.' Nelly might have been reacting the most rationally of _all_ of them at a time like this.

Nozomi looked down at Nelly, a clearly-defined concern etched across her face. "Well, a lot of it is already clear, but she actually _did_ mention… Nelly-san, why don't you tell Mochizuki-san what you told me. If you feel comfortable, of course."

It took her a few seconds, but Nelly looked up, her face red and splotchy from crying, and her breathing a bit uneven, probably for the same reason. "My… my dad."

"Your… dad?" Nanako repeated.

Nelly nodded. "H-he always told me he'd look out for me. But now we're—we're in here, and we can't see anyone else, and we can't _call_ anyone else and, he's—he's out _there_." She sniffed again, and Nanako could tell she was on the verge of breaking down into more sobs.

There was one thing she knew how to do in this situation, and she was very reluctant to do it, lest she have another, slightly shorter and more female Hyun-ki on her hands. However… even in this uncontrolled, uneven field, it seemed like Nanako might have no choice. She knelt down next to the girl on the floor. "But Nelly-san," she started, "you _do_ have people here who are looking out for you!"

Nelly looked up again, this time at the shrine maiden standing up behind Nanako. "You mean like Nozomi-chan?"

"I, uh—" Nanako looked behind her to see Nozomi mouthing the word ' _yes_.' "Well, yeah, of course."

"Well, I told her too, she's—"

"But! That's not who I was talking about," Nanako cut in. _That_ seemed to get Nelly's attention.

"Then, who? Asami-chan? Henry-kun? _You_?"

"No—I mean—yes, but that's not who I was talking about, either. I was talking about…" She had to be _careful_ , here, "the woman you mentioned earlier."

"Um… Nozomi-chan, again?"

Nanako gestured behind her shoulder. "No, no, a while ago. While you met Shimizu-san and me in the hallway. The woman you mentioned then, just once..."

Nelly looked confused for a few seconds, then her eyes widened. "You—you mean, my _mom_?"

"Oh! Well, she _does_ definitely have a motherly energy around her," Nanako said, shutting her eyes. "It makes sense that a spirit like that would be focusing her energy around you…"

"W-what? What?" Nelly sat up, untucking her legs from her pinafore and leaning close to Nanako. "How can you—how do you know?"

"Well, um," Nanako thought for half a second. "Usually when she crosses over to the living world, she can only go to your house. It's big, and decorated nicely," as the house of anyone who owned a private collection of priceless antiques including a World War II decoder likely would be, "and she enjoys being there with you and your father. She likes it when you two talk about history together."

That last line was a bit _too_ much of an assumption, but it paid off—Nelly looked more invested in what Nanako was saying than in her previous sadness. "And—and she's here? Are you sure? I thought you said you couldn't hear any ghosts!"

If Nelly _sounded_ a tiny bit doubtful, Nozomi _looked…_ troubled. Still, though, Nanako was in too deep to stop now, and she nodded, sagely. "Mmm. She isn't saying much, and her spirit _is_ weak—I think this place might not be easy for ghosts to cross over into, and she might have to leave soon. But.." Nanako looked right _beside_ Nelly, and the antiquarian followed her eyes. "Oh, I see, I see. Nelly-san, the last time you cried _this_ much is when… _that_ happened, wasn't it?"

She clutched at the neckline of her shirt. "Y-yeah… when she…"

Nanako took that hand in her own, and rubbed it gently. "It's okay, Nelly-san, I know. But during times of great emotional distress, some ghosts can cross over for just a bit, even in situations where they wouldn't normally be able to."

"So, she knew I was sad, and scared, and worried, and she came all the way to see me _here_?" asked Nelly, and Nanako had to _fight_ to keep a somewhat neutral expression.

"It looks like that's the case," said Nanako.

"Can you really hear her? Can you really _talk_ to her."

"I _am_ the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer."

"Then…" Nelly leaned in closer, so close that Nanako wasn't entirely sure if Nozomi was still able to hear her. "C-can you tell her I miss her?"

 _God_ , did Nanako feel terrible about doing so well, and about Nelly being so open—but still, with the experience of a seasoned professional who was technically doing it for a good reason, she kept that hidden. "Nelly-san, you've felt that way for a while, haven't you? That's how she came here. She already _knows._ "

Nelly leaned away, letting her back and head fall against the washing machine. She blinked, and a few more tears fell out of her eyes—fresh ones that rolled down her now-still cheeks, not the kind that had wracked her with sobs just a minutes before. She sat like that for a moments, clearly deep in thought or reflection.

"Nelly-san…" Nozomi breathed, getting ready to kneel down next to her.

"No," said Nelly, quietly, but firmly. She sniffed, and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "It's… I'm… I'm okay, now. I _will_ be." She grabbed the edge of the washer and pulled herself up to her feet—she was shaky, at first, but she seemed to be telling the truth. "I think I will."

A frail smile found its way onto Nozomi's face—what looked like the first in a few hours. "You _will_ , Nelly-san."

Nanako stood up next to them, a familiar bittersweet sensation gnawing at her. "I'm… glad you're feeling better, Nelly-san."

"It's thanks to you, Nanako-chan! And Mom, of course." She _already_ sounded better, though the fact that she'd spent the last few hours crying was still evident in her voice. "I… I think I'm ready to leave, now." Nelly ambled over to where Shin'ichi was standing by the front of the laundry room, leaving her and Nozomi in the back.

The shrine maiden spoke up the second Nelly was out of earshot. "What you did back there, I don't know if that was…"

"...It was for a good reason," Nanako said. "Don't you think?"

Nozomi seemed conflicted, but eventually, she sighed, deeply, and nodded. "I guess we have that in common, Mochizuki-san."

"What? Wanting to help people feel better?"

Nozomi smiled again, but this one was _just_ a tiny bit more forced. "...Yes."

"Well…" Nanako looked towards the front of the laundry room. "No sense talking about it here." The two walked over to join Nelly and Shin'ichi, the former of which already seemed well on the way back to her pre-crow self, and the latter of which seemed a bit relieved about that.

"Oh, hey, it's you two," said Shin'ichi. "You know, Nanako, Nelly-tan here was _just_ telling me what you told her. Communing with spirits in a place like this, _huh_?"

Nanako inhaled sharply and gritted her teeth. "I mean, it _sure did help_ her with _feeling better_ and getting out of a _dangerously fragile place_ , wouldn't you say? Because that seemed like a _pretty important_ thing to do."

Shin'ichi waved a hand dismissively. "Relaaaaaax, I know. There's a _reason_ I went out looking for _you,_ Nanako." He looked over towards Nelly. "She's _talented_ right?"

Nelly nodded and smiled, but Nanako just rolled her eyes at that. "Well, I'm glad that's all settled now, because there's a reason I was looking for you—actually, all of you." Oh, good, _that_ problem itself. "I have to tell you all about dinner!"

" _Please_ enlighten us about _dinner_ ," said Shin'ichi, grinning.

"Yes, please do. I'm afraid neither I nor Nelly-san had much in the way of lunch today. I know _I'm_ hungry, and I'm sure she is, too."

"I would be _happy_ to tell you, _Tachibana-san_ ," said Nanako, narrowly resisting the urge to elbow the showrunner. "Musubu-san and Tsumugu-san told me to tell everyone to meet up for dinner at seven."

"Didn't we do that before?" asked Nelly.

"Well, yes, but this one will be a little less chaotic, because everyone's met each other, and a little more fun, because there's going to be food! Tempura-san told me _he'd_ cook," said Nanako.

"Oooh, dinner by the best high school sushi chef in the country? Nanako, you should have _led_ with that," remarked Shin'ichi. "What do you think he's going to make? My guess is… noodles, definitely."

"Ah, and here I thought he'd be more of a dumpling fan," said Nozomi, the fourth-most sarcastic person in their four-person group. Shin'ichi shot her a thumbs up.

"Well, whatever he makes, he left his room with some spices I've never seen before and his own personal set of knives, so it's going to be _good_. Or, at least, better than Chishin or I could make."

"Hey, I have _people_ for that," said Shin'ichi. "So when is this little soiree? Because right now, it's…" he looked at the far-too-gaudy-for-a-guy-his-age wristwatch, "Six fifty-eight."

"Wha—seriously? I don't even think it was six o' clock when I got here!" Nanako cried.

"Well, I was crying for a long time…"

"I… _guess_. Dinner's at seven, so we should leave _right now_ ," said Nanako, a bit hurriedly. Arriving fashionably late to her own party (that was actually Musubu's party) was excusable once, but just plain tacky, twice. So for the second time that day, she found herself ushering three other people down the east hall.

"Mochizuki-san, I don't know if we need to go this quickly. I can _see_ the dining room, it's right down the hall," said Nozomi.

"Can't take that chance, Tachibana-san."

Shin'ichi, meanwhile, stared at his watch as he powerwalked. "Six fifty-nine, Nanako."

"Ugh!" Nanako picked up the pace even further, which wasn't easy with her short legs. But, soon, she reached the sliding door to the dining room and practically yanked it open. "I. Am. On… time?"

The dining room was entirely empty, save for Ichika and Asami, who sat side-by-side on the nice sitting mats at the single long table and seemed to be playing cards with each other. The both looked up at Nanako's loud entrance, though.

"Chibu-chan!" called Ichika. The other three joined her a few seconds afterwards. "Mimi-chan! Nabeshin-chan! And—hmm… wait, I need a second for _you_."

" _Isn't that the_ anime _guy_?" Nanako whispered.

" _Yeah, but she's got the right spirit_ ," Shin'ichi whispered back.

"So," Nanako began at normal volume, walking into the dining room proper, "where _is_ everybody?"

"...Tsukuyomi-chan!" exclaimed Ichika, pointing at Nelly, not paying attention to Nanako's question at all.

"Tsukuyomi-chan…!" Nelly murmured, also not really paying attention. "That's _me_." She and Nozomi walked over and sat across from the two at the table, leaving Nanako and Shin'ichi by the door.

Hyun-ki stepped out of the adjoining kitchen, wearing a too-small plain cloth apron over his still-unidentifiable TV show t-shirt instead of his lab coat, not seeming especially thrilled to see any of them. "What are you all _doing_ here?"

"Um, eating dinner, ideally," said Nanako. "What's everyone else… _not_ doing here? It's seven o' clock."

"Actually, it's six fifty ni—oh, _now_ it's seven." Shin'ichi took a performative look around the room. "Yep, _now_ they're late."

"You're _both_ wrong. It's six-thirty," said Hyun-ki, brusquely. "You can just ask the bird over there what time it—"

" _CURRENT TIME: SIX-THIRTY P.M."_

He gestured to the bird in question, curtly nodded at them, and walked back into the kitchen.

"Real charmer, huh?"

"Ugh, tell me about it," said Nanako. "And—tell me about _that_!" She pointed at his watch. "Didn't you say it was seven?"

Shin'ichi held up his watch so Nanako could see that it did, in fact, say it was seven—well, a minute past, now. "Who knows? It might've gotten messed up during that whole 'waking up in a strange room,' thing we all did."

"That'd be kind of weird, wouldn't it? The crows trapped us in here, wanted us to kill each other, and… set our clocks back half an hour?"

As if on _cue,_ Saito stepped up through the door to the dining room, taking a look at his pocket watch and then snapping it shut. "I apologize for being late, I just—oh. We _were_ supposed to meet here at seven, weren't we?"

"It is _six thirty-one!"_ came Hyun-ki's voice from the kitchen.

A peal of giggling came from the kitchen—Asuka's? They _had_ been in the kitchen a few hours ago when Nanako had told them about the dinner plans. Were they helping out now, too?"

Saito looked towards the kitchen, towards the four girls now all playing a card game at the table, and then back to Shin'ichi and Nanako. "Is… it not just after seven?"

Shin'ichi made a vaguely amused noise of 'I told you so,' and Nanako rolled her eyes at him again. "Not according to the birds, Himitsu-san. Which means… something is up with all of our personal clocks. _That's_ good." She'd have to remember to check the time on her phone—if it still had any charge left when she returned to her room. "We can add that to the top of the pile of 'weird and awful things that happened today' when we eat dinner, but for now, we're unfashionably early."

Asuka stepped out of the kitchen as she said that. "What does—oh! There are a lot more people here than before." They, too, looked at the four at the table and three near the entrance. "I was just going to start making some tea, if anyone has any preferences. There are a lot of choices back there."

At the mention of the word 'tea,' Nelly dropped her hand of cards to the table and stood up. "I'll make the tea!"

"Nelly-san, you don't have to do that. I was just going to start—"

She was already halfway to the kitchen when she interrupted Asuka. "No, Asuka-chan! I make tea for my dad all the time! I'm good at it, I promise."

"It's not that you aren't good at it, it's just that—"

"Trust me! I'll make some really good tea, so you take a break. I'm okay now, so it's my turn to be helpful." Deep down, Nanako knew that last line wasn't directed towards anyone in the room.

"Um… alright. I'll be out here, then." They watched as she walked into the kitchen, then shrugged, and beckoned for Saito, Shin'ichi, and Nanako to join them at the table with the three girls.

"Aww, you're leaving? At least let me know if they have jasmine, Nelly!" Asami called after her. Then, seeing the four heading to the table, she patted the sitting mat to her right. Nanako took _that_ prime opportunity to grab _that_ empty seat as Asami was tossing down her own cards on the table. "Man, I can't believe she left in the middle of the game. I was doing so _well_ this time around, too."

"Kurogane-san, you were losing," said Nozomi, confusedly. "Badly."

"Yeah! Even though you were the one who taught us the game!" Ichika chirped.

"Yeah, yeah. Point is that I was doin' better than _last_ time around," said Asami. She turned to Nanako, and to the other three who'd come to the table. "You guys ever played _Daifugou_? It's good with four or five people, but we could probably stretch it out to seven."

"You're… playing cards at a time like this?" Saito questioned.

"Well, yeah, what else are we _supposed_ to do?" asked Asami. She gathered up all the cards on the table into a neat pile, and for the first time, Nanako noticed they were all decorated with stained-glass motifs. Among many other things, it seemed Ichika was _dedicated_. "We couldn't find a way out, the way out they _gave_ us was _total_ bullshit—"

"Kurogane-san," said Nozomi, with a _gentle_ sort of scolding.

"Sorry, sorry. Uh… total _nonsense_ , and when I went to try and break down the door in that weird room near the lounge, Watari made me stop because she thought the birds were gonna attack us."

"Hey, I don't wanna get _pecked_!" cried Ichika.

"She's right, Kurogane-san," said Nanako, patting her on the shoulder. "If you don't want to take it from that bird, take it from me and Himitsu-san."

Asami skillfully yet absently riffled the cards she'd collected, to the faint surprise of Nanako, and, she imagined, most of the others. "We don't know what else to do, so we've been keepin' busy in our own way. What've _you_ been up to, Himitsu? At a 'time like this?'"

"I'm glad you asked," said Saito, pulling out a pocket size notebook that had clearly been heavily filled. Nanako and Asuka exchanged mildly concerned glances. "I've spent the past few hours filling this with every entity, agency, and individual that might have had motivation to do trap us here under these conditions, from most to least rational."

"Just out of curiosity, Himitsu-san, what was the least rational?" asked Nanako.

"The the crow population of Japan, provoked by recent efforts to curb overpopulation in Ueno park, found a way to utilize human technology to take revenge," he said, matter-of-factly.

The other six people at the table were completely silent for a moment, before Shin'ichi burst into mirthful laughter. "I _love_ this guy! Hey, Himitsu-kun, you mind if I use that? I _really_ want to use that."

"...Use it?"

"Don't mind him, Himitsu-san, Chishin is just always on the lookout for material," Nanako said, waving dismissively in Shin'ichi's direction. "What was the most rational?"

"The government, of course."

"Of course."

"But I _did_ organize that further into agencies and branches," continued Saito, flipping through the first few pages of the notebook. "For _instance,_ the Ministry of the Environment might—"

"Um, Himitsu-san?" Nozomi cut in. "It may be a good idea to save the specific details of your ideas for when everyone gets here tonight."

Asuka nodded in agreement. "Mmhmm. That way we can all discuss them as a group, like Musubu-san and Tsumugu-san wanted."

It was a little strange, Nanako thought, that the two shortest members of their group were also probably the most reasonable.

"Very well." He snapped the notebook shut and slid it back into one of his pockets. "Watari-san and Kurogane-san were playing cards, I was in my room, Mochizuki-san was letting everyone know about these plans…"

"It's one thing I've found I'm pretty good at," said Nanako.

"I don't suppose there was any further excitement?" asked Saito.

"Well, Tachibana-kun, Nelly-tan, and I spent the last few hours in the laundry room, so you tell me," said Shin'ichi.

Saito raised an eyebrow.

"Nelly-san was having an _understandably_ difficult time, and Shin-san and I were doing our best to comfort her in a relatively quiet, secure place," Nozomi quickly clarified.

" _Tachibana-kun_ was doing her best," Shin'ichi countered. "I'm perfectly secure in the fact that I'm _terrible_ at dealing with that, so I did the next best thing and recruited _Nanako_ over here to talk to her."

"And that's where _I_ just was," Nanako finished.

"Shimizu-san?" asked Saito.

"I… was stress baking," admitted Asuka.

"Oh! So that's what smelled good when I found you," Nanako realized aloud. "Were you making a cake, or something?"

"...Four cakes. Also, some cookies." They sighed. "I'm feeling pretty stressed right now, if I'm being honest."

"Well, _duh!"_ Asami exclaimed, leaning back with one arm over the back of her sitting mat. "How're you supposed to hear stuff like the bu—garbage we did and just be totally cool with it? Even if it's not true, it's _messed up_! That's why you gotta be like Watari and me and take your mind off it." She leaned back forward, and pushed the now-shuffled deck of cards to the middle of the table, between the seven of them. "I think we still have a few minutes before dinner…"

Shin'ichi looked at his watch. "It's thirty minutes before seven-twenty."

"Great!" Asami leaned further forward, both hands on the table. "It'll only take a minute or two to teach you guys."

For the hundredth time that day, Nanako felt like it wasn't like she had anything _better_ to do with her time—but this time, it didn't turn out so bad.

Asami taught them all the rules of the card game they'd been playing, and what followed was a glorious mess. Between the deck stretched to accommodate seven people, the four who didn't really know what they were doing, Asami, who knew very well what she was doing but seemed to hit every raw deal, Nozomi, who knew very well what she was doing but seemed a bit too kind to ruthlessly dominate her floundering competition, and Ichika, who knew very well what she was doing and _absolutely_ had no such reservations, the dining room filled up around the group in the middle of the table. By the time seven o' clock rolled around, Ichika had been awarded the title of _Daifugou,_ Asami had been awarded the title of _Daihinmin_ , and thirteen of the sixteen seats at the table were full.

But the best things, Nanako knew, were yet to come—as evidenced by Nelly, who came bounding out of the kitchen at seven PM on the half-hour-delayed dot. Well, bounding wasn't the right word; the spring in her step had returned from that morning, but she was being _very_ careful to not spill any of the teapots or teacups that crowded the large tray she carried. She placed it down on at the end of the table closest to the kitchen, between Viktoriya and an empty seat across from her, then stepped back to admire her handiwork. "Oooookay! _This_ one," she said, pointing to one of the teapots, "is plain green tea. This one is black tea. And _this,"_ she said, smiling right at Asami, "is _jasmine!"_

Nanako _felt_ Asami fist-pump in the seat next to her. She'd never had jasmine tea before, but, hey, maybe it was worth a try if it was getting this sort of reaction.

While Nelly passed out the cups and poured tea for everyone—she _insisted_ —Nanako took the opportunity to learn just a little bit more about her classmates. Green tea was, unsurprisingly, the most popular choice all around. Black tea was a distant second, only requested by Henry and Saito, though Nelly left a cup of it at both unoccupied seats at the end of the table, and at what Nanako assumed was her own seat next to Saito. Nanako and Asami requested jasmine, and Hinawa and Shin'ichi both preferred coffee. Viktoriya was the only one who refused to take a beverage at all, despite Nelly's best efforts.

Her cajoling was cut off pretty quickly, though, by a soft voice from the kitchen. "Nelly-san, we're going to bring everything out."

"Oh, okay, I'll be right there!" She left the last empty cup and all three partially-filled teapots in front of Viktoria and rushed back inside the kitchen with the tray. After a few moments, she re-emerged with Yuki, Hyun-ki, and six trays of the _best looking food_ Nanako had seen in a long, long time. They placed the food on the table and the same scene as before played out, but with food instead of drink: Yuki excitedly, animatedly, and loudly (for Yuki, that was) lovingly described every variety of nigirizushi, inarizushi, makizushi, narezushi, types that Nanako had never _heard of_ so much as seen, laid out, in front of her.

This was the power of good food, it seemed. It was _nice_ , seeing Yuki so happy, Nelly so excited, and even Hyun-ki with a rare (if muted) expression of pride on his face. It was _nice_ that Viktoriya mentioned this was her first time seeing authentic Japanese sushi, and that Musubu and Tsumugu confessed they had entirely opposite tastes in fish. It was _nice_ that there seemed to be a few pieces of the obscure but delicious oyster nigiri that was popular in her hometown…

...That she didn't take, because nobody was doing any taking. Even with the mouthwatering assortment of food in front of them, none of the now sixteen students at the table was reaching for anything—and, now that Nanako looked more carefully, nobody had taken a sip from their teacup, either.

And she wasn't the only person to notice. Yuki, who'd been rocking on his mat, glancing around to see everybody's reactions to his cooking, slowly moved from excitement to confusion, and then, to worry. "What? What is wrong? We had to cook quickly, but it's very good."

A tense quiet diffused through the room as nobody was quite willing to verbalize the thoughts that had just entered the forefronts of everyone's minds—nobody, that was, but Viktoriya. "We did not see you make this dish ourselves."

"The kitchen is small… if people tried to watch, it would be crowded…" Yuki said, nervousness beginning to crop up in his voice.

Though she and Yuki sat at the same end of the long table, Viktoriya spoke loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear. "Do you not understand why we would be unwilling to trust food such as this in the advent of _rule 6_?"

Somehow, Nanako had forgotten about the crow perched in the corner of the dining room—she was startled when it suddenly came to life. " _RULE 6: ANY ONE PERSON WILL BE GRANTED PERMISSION TO LEAVE THIS PLACE BY SUCCESSFULLY KILLING A FELLOW STUDENT."_

It was… an _unfortunate_ time to learn the further functions of the crows.

Yuki looked deeply upset at this turn of events, but it was Hyun-ki, sitting next to him, that actually said something—Nanako got the impression it was more for the itamae's sake than his own. "Are you implying we _did_ something to this food?"

" _I_ am not implying anything that is not _already_ felt by everyone else here," Viktoriya answered cooly, gesturing to the untouched trays of food across the table. "You must understand our uncertainty."

" _First_ of all, Shimizu was in the kitchen most of the time we were working, and Hitotsuki was there when they weren't. Don't you think either of _them_ would have spoken up?" So much for that muted positive emotion of his.

"If they'd noticed, perhaps… and if they didn't participate themselves."

" _Second_ of all, it's a _kitchen._ The most poisonous thing in there is _dish soap_."

"You are the Super High School Level Chemist, are you not? If anyone could find a way to use common kitchen supplies to such an extent—or, perhaps, bring his own—"

Nanako looked at Hyun-ki, and looked at Viktoriya, and looked at Musubu and Tsumugu, both of whom looked a _bit_ concerned that this interaction was going exactly the opposite of the way they hoped it would. It was stressful, and uneasy, and _strange_ in that she couldn't _quite_ decide who she agreed more with. In fact, she was so focused on the situation developing in front of them that she almost didn't notice when Saito, sitting directly across from her, picked a piece of salmon nigiri off the tray sitting near them, sniffed it, and popped it in his mouth.

"Um, Himitsu-san—" It came out a little bit louder and higher-pitched than she meant, but, to be fair, she was a little thrown off by suddenness of the action in such a tense situation. Everyone else was, too, as the table turned its eyes to the two of them when Nanako cried out.

Saito put one finger up in a motion for everyone else to wait, swallowed the sushi, and cleared his throat. "It's fine."

"What?" asked Nanako, and five other people at the table, simultaneously.

"I've been building up an immunity so I'd be able to taste some common poisons, and learning to detect olfactorily those I could not, for the past few years," said Saito, like it made perfect sense. To be fair, with him, it probably did.

The entire table was silent, save for Shin'ichi, who was unsuccessfully trying to stop himself from chuckling.

"So… these things definitely aren't poisonous, then?" asked Asami.

"I have _literally_ been saying—" started Hyun-ki.

"No," said Saito, plainly. "Unless it's a delayed-action, undetectable poison likely unmanufacturable by household chemicals."

" _Sick!"_ That answer was clearly good enough for Asami, as she grabbed half a roll's worth of eel maki and began chowing down. And _that,_ in turn, was enough to cut through the tension that filled the room. It wasn't long before fifteen-sixteenths of the room was eating—Viktoriya still held out, but reserved a few pieces of snapper roll in the corner of the tray nearest her.

Whether or not it was because she was busy eating, or because she saw everybody else was, Musubu waited about half an hour before properly introducing the topic that was _still_ hanging in the room, regardless of immediate conflict surrounding it. She started, simply, vaguely, and in a way that invited discussion: "We need to talk about what we're going to do."

"Well, I think our number one priority is gettin' out of here, right?" asked Henry. Nanako was inclined to agree.

"I don't know if that's our _top_ priority anymore," responded Nozomi, gently. "We need to focus on making sure everyone is safe, even if it delays us leaving. The crows seemed a lot more willing to see us harmed after the announcement this morning, whether it was from them or from each other…" Another solid point.

"Both of these goals might be accomplished if we expended effort looking into who or what entity has decided to keep us here in the first place," said Saito. On the one hand, that was also a decent idea, on the other, Nanako wasn't sure if Saito's notebook of conspiracies was the best place to start. It _did_ give her an idea, though—

"Wait, if someone is trying to _keep_ us here, then someone is probably trying to get us out, too, aren't they?"

Musubu nodded. "Our families and friends might not be aware of our disappearances—we _were_ supposed to have a field trip soon after the entrance ceremony, so they may not be expecting contact from us, anyways—at least, not at first. But in that case, _Hope's Peak_ has to know we're missing."

"Is there any way to contact them?" asked Yusei. "I'm no expert in robotics, but all the examinations of the crows I was able to procure didn't produce any useable long-distance communication devices… as far as _I_ could tell."

"I found my cell phone this morning. It still had charge left, but it didn't have any signal or wireless connection," Asuka answered. "It looks like we're somewhere really isolated…"

"That's another good point, Shimizu-san!" Musubu said, in the same tone of voice she'd use to tell the gang to split up and look for clues. "We still don't know where we are for sure, but that's something important to keep in mind."

"Wait, Musubu, do you remember what the headmaster said during the entrance ceremony?" asked Tsumugu. Did _Nanako_? She remembered bits and pieces, little facts here and there, but certainly couldn't recite the speech on demand. "He said we were going to the oldest school in Japan, north of Hope's Peak. There's no chance we're _there_ now, is there?"

"Oooh, ooh!" Nelly called, not quite leaping up off of her sitting mat but getting pretty close. "I know where that is! The oldest school in Japan is called _Ashikaga_ , and it's an hour and a half north of Tokyo!" Her excitement faded pretty quickly. "That's not where we are now, though. I've been there a bunch of times, and there was _never_ a building like _this."_

"Then let's wait," said Hinawa, flatly. Everyone was quiet after she said that, awaiting some further clarification that didn't seem to be coming.

"Can you explain what you mean by that, Hikaru-san?" asked Musubu.

"You said it yourself. If we aren't where we're supposed to be, and clearly—" she gestured to Nelly— "we are _not_ , then Hope's Peak probably knows we're gone. Other people might, too, but a school of that size, with that kind of funding, is going to have a _dozen_ contingency plans for the safety of its students."

"Soooo… you think we should wait here and not do aaaaaaanything, Kumatora-chan?" asked Ichika.

"I'm saying that—Kuma _-what_?"

"You know! 'Cause you have muscles like a bear, _and_ a tiger!"

"Uh… a-anyways," said Hinawa. "I'm saying that I think it'd make sense to wait for orders from a CO when we don't know what to do," said Hinawa. "Or in this case, Hope's Peak."

"That's definitely not a terrible idea, especially given the stakes we might be dealing with," said Musubu. "Does anyone else have anything else to say about that?"

After a few moments of quiet, Viktoriya spoke up, and said, simply, "Hikaru-san is correct." Half of the the table looked at her surprisedly, most of all Hinawa. "Absent of immediate danger, waiting for guidance from those above you is the most prudent course of action in a situation such as this."

"Well, that's two votes for waiting for contact from Hope's Peak," said Musubu.

"It's not like that mens we have to sit around here doing nothing," Shin'ichi pointed out. "We don't have to put ourselves in the middle of a crow swarm to poke around a little bit here and there, maybe get a few good _shots_ in…"

" _And_ if it looks like we're on our own in a few days, we can sit down and plan something else," said Tsumugu.

Asami leaned back on her sitting mat. "Mmmph, I still think we should show these motherfu—"

" _Kurogane-san_." Nozomi was a _touch_ more reproachful than the last time.

"I still think we should show these _motherfuh-rickers_ who's boss," Asami corrected. "But I _guess_ that could be plan B, too…"

Over the course of the meal (and dessert, graciously provided by Asuka's coping mechanisms), they all reached more-or-less the same conclusion, whether it was their first choice or not. Besides being physically _easier_ to wait, it also seemed safer (much safer than literally killing each other, which, to Nanako's relief, did _not_ come up as even a joking option). Besides, it wasn't like they didn't have food and shelter to spare, and it wasn't like doing this would irreparably set them on another course…

...besides, Hope's Peak _had_ to be looking for them, didn't they?

* * *

Nanako left the dining room that night with a full stomach and a… _relatively_ positive attitude, even considering how the rest of the day had been. She, her roommate, and most of the others had chosen to retire to their rooms for the night—while Nanako wasn't entirely sure why that was the most popular decision for other people (though she wouldn't be surprised if everyone was just feeling the emotional and physical exhaustion of such a day), she was just dedicated to her evening routine.

A pack of makeup-removing wipes (thank goodness _those_ had been in her room, too) lay next to her as she sat on the edge of her bed, slowly unbraiding her hair and brushing through it. Henry lay on the bed across from her, already a quarter of the way through his Winter War book.

It was quiet, but not uncomfortably so, when the overhead lighting suddenly shut off, plunging the room into darkness.

"Gah, are you _kidding_ me?" While Nanako was a bit shocked, her roommate sounded a bit more _irritated_ than anything. She heard Henry shut the book and toss it down, then fumble for lamp on his bed table and switch it on. With the light of his lamp, Nanako was able to do the same with her own fairly easily. Between the two of them, there was almost the same amount of light as there had been earlier. "The heck was the point of that?"

Nanako looked around, the shrugged, then went back to her hair. "Well, the blue-eyed crow _did_ say there were going to be… how did it phrase it, 'significant' changes in light at nighttime and in the morning?"

Henry got up and opened the door to their room—sure enough, the hallway was almost as dark as their room had been a few moments ago, with a few lights shining by the floor to provide a less-treacherous journey down the hallway. "Geez."

"Yeah, that's _one_ way to describe it," said Nanako.

"Eh. It's about the only way _I_ would," said Henry, walking back over towards their beds.

"Wait, that's it? Just, 'geez?' Not, 'oh no, I'm really worried?' or 'this makes me so scared!' or…" Nanako thought for a moment between brushes. "Just, 'aaaaaaaah!'"

Now it was Henry's turn to shrug. "I dunno. I'm not good at letting things like this affect me."

"Not… _good_ at letting something affect you?" asked Nanako. "Okay, I know I'm not outright saying it, but this whole 'murder your classmates' thing is _still_ kind of messing with me, _just_ a little. If you have some kind of way to not worry about it, you _have_ to share."

"Huh… how do I even _explain_ it?" He paused for a few minutes, then snapped his fingers. "Mochizuki, this… is gonna sound crazy, but hear me out. It's leading to something, I promise. I know I'm the Super High School Historian, but I'm going to give you an English lesson," Henry said, reaching up and grabbing another one of his ridiculously long history books from the shelf on his side of the room before plopping down on the edge of his own bed. He quickly flipped through the pages before finally stopping on one near the beginning.

"Uh…" To be fair, it was far from the _worst_ answer that could have come hours after the revelation that they might have to kill each other to leave this place. She ran her fingers through her now long, slightly wavy hair. "I mean… you _can_ , but just know that I haven't learned a thing about English since middle school."

Henry leaned forward and held out his very much English-language book so it faced Nanako. "C'mere, look at this," he said, and Nanako leaned forward as well. He pointed to one of the words. "Do you know what this one here says?"

"Oh, this is only three letters. Wuh… Ah… Yuh… Wait. No. I know this one. Is it... ' _way''_?

Henry nodded. "So there's another word that talks about how heavy something is. It's spelled _W-E-I-G-H._ Do you know _that_ one?"

"Hmm… wuh… eh… ai… guh…"

"Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and stop you right there. It's pronounced ' _weigh_.'

Nanako blinked. "But… there's a _G_ in there. Where's the _G,_ Henry? It makes a 'guh' or 'juh' sound, we _learned_ that."

"It's there, don't worry. Here's another one, it's… something to do with milk, I think. _W-H-E-Y._ "

"Wuh… huh… eh… yuh?" Nanako tried. "Wuh-heyuh… Oh, my god. Is that one ' _whey,'_ too?"

"See? You're gettin' it."

"So same-sounding words… can be spelled three different ways in English," said Nanako, in mild disbelief. "I thought English was _phonetic_."

"It _is_." Henry leaned forward a bit further and stared her straight in the eye. "That's not even the _worst_ part." He flipped through the book again for a few seconds, then apparently found what he was looking for. "This word here, _B-E-A-T. 'Beat.'_ If you put an _H_ at the front, that makes _H-E-A-T, 'heat.'_ If you put a _G-R_ instead of an _H,_ what does that make?"

"Guh… reet? _Greet_?"

"No, it's _great._ And if you put a _T-H-R_ in front of that _E-A-T_ instead, that's…"

"Tuh-huh-rate," said Nanako, who was, by this point, totally confident she was wrong on every level. She pulled a makeup wipe out of the package on her bed, and began to work on her eyes.

"Wow, that's—I didn't think you'd be _that_ off, Mochizuki. It's _threat,_ " explained Henry. "Are you getting my point here?"

"That English is a terrible and nonsensical language?" She asked, a bit exasperatedly.

"Yep. Even more terrible n' nonsensical than Russian or Japanese sometimes, wouldn't you say?"

It took Nanako a second to make the connection. "Henry-san, are you—are you talking about that conversation we had with Viktoriya-san? Like, _twelve hours ago?"_

Henry nodded. "I was thinking about an answer to what you said, 'cause you couldn't think of an example for English, all the way since back when that blue-eyed bird left."

Nanako was… flabbergasted. "But _why_?"

"I couldn't help it," said Henry, returning his book to the shelf and flopping back onto his bed. "When that crow started talking about being trapped, and murdering—hell, when it started talking in the first place—it's like my brain… didn't wanna take it. So I just started thinking about things that weren't that. It feels like I've been thinking about _everything_ , rapid-fire, _except_ the crazy stuff."

"I… guess I understand?" said Nanako. It was _very much_ a guess. "Well, if it's the same principle as distracting yourself..." She finished clearing her face and got up to discard her used makeup wipes.

"It's just how I've always—holy _cow,_ how much makeup were you _wearing_ , Mochizuki?"

" _Wow._ "

"Uh, sorry. That wasn't very nice to ask, was it?"

"Not at _all_. But it was a _fair_ question, Henry-san," said Nanako, crawling into her bed one last time. Honestly, the candid attitude about something other than the ghost whispering itself was a little refreshing. "And the answer is: enough for TV."

"Oh. That makes sense." He grabbed his Winter War book again, began to read—and stopped. "Mochizuki, what're you doing?"

Nanako paused, her hand still on the lamp next to her bed she'd just switched off. "Um… trying to go to sleep?"

"Isn't my reading gonna bother you?"

"I never really thought of reading as a loud or bothersome activity, Henry-san."

"No, not from the sound, from the _light_ ," Henry said, looking at his own lamp. "Even this one by itself is pretty bright."

"It's fine, I can sleep facing away from it."

"No, no, lemme—do you have a flashlight or a book light or anything? Henry asked, getting out of bed and looking around. "I don't want to keep you up."

"I… have some candles?"

"That'll do," said Henry, walking over to Nanako's dresser and picking up _April Midnight_. "You mind if I use this one? It smells good."

"Yeah, that'd be the 'rugged and invigorating blend of cedar and mahogany,'" said Nanako. "You're sure you want to read by candlelight, though? That _can't_ be good for your eyes."

"Eh, wouldn't be the first time. You don't even _know_ how many nights I had to pretend I wasn't up past midnight reading."

"Well…" she sat up and fluffed her pillow, then lay back down. Nanako couldn't deny the appeal of good sleep right now, especially after eating downing two slices of Asuka's strawberry cake. "Just make sure to put it out when you go to sleep, alright? We don't need to burn this place down _just_ yet."

"You got it," Henry said, lighting the candle and then switching off his own lamp. "Good night, Mochizuki."

"Good night, Henry-san."

And in the dark, the flickering light of the candle reflected in the eyes of the crow that remained in the corner of their room, unblinking and unmoving.

* * *

 **I think the main takeaway from this chapter is: I don't have a good sense of scale or my own writing speed! This chapter was about ten thousand words too long and definitely had its share of filler, mostly because I wanted to make sure everybody got a little bit of screentime and begin some arcs and things before the end of the prologue (and, like, introduce the main antagonist, or whatever). But, it's _finally_ done—the prologue, that is! Now that this part is over, we can finally get into… Free Time! Mmhmm, it'll be another chapter or two of character interaction before the actual Dangan Ronpa Plot of this Dangan Ronpa Story comes about, but I hope it'll be worth the wait! Thank you to everyone for reading, and for being patient. :)**

 **PS: Henry's bit about English was written over a week ago! It's kind of a coincidence that it came up in discussion, though.**


	7. Day 2: A Brief Period of Adjustment

_**Room 8, 8:53 AM: Nanako Practices Amateur Somnology**_

* * *

She made her first mistake of the day immediately upon waking up, when she mumbled quietly to herself about what time it was.

" _CURRENT TIME: EIGHT FIFTY-THREE A.M_." the crow stationed in the back of the corner of the room shrilly informed her. Nanako was awake after _that_. And if _she_ was, her roommate certainly would be, too.

"Ugh. Henry-san, I'm sorry," Nanako said, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes. The overhead lights were back on, she noticed, just as bright as they had been the night before.

"Don't worry about it, Mochizuki, I've been awake for a while." Nanako looked over at the bed a few feet away, and saw that he was probably telling the truth. Henry was sitting on top of his blankets, still in his pajamas, his open book about the Winter War laying in his lap and _April Moonlight_ still burning on his bed table. Most evident, though, were the bags beneath his eyes that had decidedly not been present the previous day.

"How long is a _while_?"

"Hmm… I dunno. I know I dozed off at _one_ point, but I'm pretty sure I slept for an hour or two."

Nanako fell back onto her bed. "An _hour_? _Why?"_

"Or _two_ ," he repeated. "And it's like I said last night. There's been so much running through my head! How am I supposed to sleep?"

"Like _this_ ," Nanako demonstrated, turning onto her side towards the wall and pulling the blankets up to her chin. "And then you close your eyes and think about… I don't know, the most boring history thing you can imagine."

"First of all, that'd be pre-Zedong communist movements in twentieth century China," said Henry, and Nanako was irrationally proud that she kind of knew what he was talking about. " _Second_ of all, it's not _that_ easy! I don't know how you slept like a rock the way you did."

"I _just_ showed you, Henry-san. Except _I_ do it with less communism and more staring at the wall," Nanako answered, sitting up a second time and getting out of bed. The feeling of the wooden floor under her bare feet—bamboo?—was one of many stark reminders that she wasn't waking up in her own room... like she needed any more. Still, though, she wasn't _too_ worried, not yet, not after what had happened the night before. "And it's worked for a while! That's not even the first time someone else has told me I sleep like a rock."

Henry nodded. "I dropped this book _three_ times last night trying to read by the candle, and it made _some kinda_ noise. You didn't even move, though." He looked up at the ceiling. "Didn't wake up when those blinked on, either. I think that was six-thirty or seven?"

"Mmm, I usually have to set three or four alarms in the morning—that's why my show doesn't start until ten. And speaking of alarms…" Nanako walked over to her dresser, where her cell phone had been lying since the night before. The battery was almost entirely drained at this point, but the screen still brightened when she flipped open the phone and displayed, in large, bright numbers: _8:56_.

"Henry-san, do you have your phone? Can you tell me what ti—can you just read the time for me?"

The historian reached over and grabbed a blocky, grey rectangle off his bedside table. Nanako vaguely recognized the model—one of those ultra-durable sorts you could throw in the ocean or run over with a car, if you so desired. "It says 'eight fifty-six.'"

"Well, that settles it. Chishin and Himitsu-san are crazy," said Nanako, as her phone's screen lit up with a notification that she _really_ should think about charging it soon. "Or their clocks are, at least."

"I'm a little lost now, but I _was_ with you for the first part of that sentence, Mochizuki."

"It's just another mystery for the pile, Henry-san." A mystery for someone _else_ to solve. Musubu, probably. Nanako went ahead and socked the phone away in one of her dresser drawers—without any signal or wireless connection, its only uses were telling time and a single brick-and-block game that would have been outdated ten years before, and since her phone charger didn't seem to be nearby, even _that_ limited functionality would be out the window soon. From different drawers, Nanako grabbed what she'd need to start the day: a clean set of clothes (another dress-and-jacket combo; being trapped with fourteen near-strangers was all the _more_ the reason to keep dressing her best), a comb, a brush, and some hair ties, and a bag of cosmetics and hygienic supplies large enough to stock a small makeup counter.

Henry peeked up from his book as she finished doing so. "Uh, should I… close my eyes, or leave the room, or…"

"Don't worry about it. I need a mirror to put on makeup anyways, so I'll get dressed in the bathroom." Nanako replied, and would have gestured in suit were both arms not occupied by her pile of items. "Besides, maybe after I leave, you can get some sleep. Just getting one hour _can't_ be healthy.

"It could have been _two,"_ Henry repeated, looking back to his book. "But you know… I might just try and do that."

Nanako took two whole steps towards the door to their door, and then turned on her heel. "You aren't going to sleep at all, are you?"

"...Nah, probably not."

"Henry-san…" she said, somewhat exasperated. Nanako wasn't _entirely_ certain why she was concerning herself with the slumber habits of someone she'd shared less than twenty-four hours with—a misplaced sense of shame over being able to sleep through the night in a situation like this, perhaps?

"How am I supposed to? I _just_ got to December 1939!"

"What does that _mean_?"

"It _means_ Simo Häyhä _,_ Mochizuki!"

"What? I barely know history in Japanese! Why would I know it in Russian?"

"Well, for starters, he's _Finnish_."

"I know even less about _those_ guys. At least I've _met_ Russians before…" Nanako thought for a moment. "Well, I've met _one_... yesterday morning… ugh, that's not the point!"

"Then _don't worry about it_ ," Henry said, parroting her tone from a few moments before. "Didn't I tell you last night? This isn't the first time I've been up reading. Aaaaaand…" He flipped through the remaining half of the book. "I'm thinking it won't be the last, either."

"Seriously?"

"It gets _dense_ after this, Mochizuki. Can you imagine fighting a war in the middle of winter? In _Finland_?"

"How many pages does it take to say 'it's really snowy and cold and everyone is miserable'?"

Henry flipped through the pages again. "Let's see... three-hundred twenty-seven."

" _Seriously_?" asked Nanako, more emphatically this time. Her arms were starting to get the slightest bit tired holding all of her things.

"You don't get a title like "Super High School Level Historian" if you don't wanna pay attention to the details. And you don't get enough time for the details if you aren't willing to let go of a few hours of sleep—"

" _Every_ hour of sleep—"

" _Some_ of 'em," Henry compromised. "Anyways, re _lax,_ Mochizuki. I'll get my rest when I need it, don't you worry."

"And you don't think it's going to be a _little_ hard to relax, knowing I'm lying a few feet away from a guy who apparently doesn't sleep more than an hour a day?"

"Not if Hikaru and Viktoriya and all the rest of 'em had the right idea at dinner last night," Henry said.

Oh, r _ight_ , she'd kind of forgotten about the best-case scenario. Ideally, there wouldn't be a _tonight_ here to worry about at all... that _was_ a comforting thought. "Fine, fine. At least _tell_ me you'll think about sleeping before I leave?" Nanako asked.

"Mochizuki," Henry said, seriously. "I will _definitely_ think about sleeping. I'll think about it, for… 'til you leave, probably."

" _Thank_ you," Nanako called over her shoulder, finally resuming her journey to brushed hair and lined eyes. "And make sure _April Moonlight_ doesn't burn down the room, alright?"

"I'll put it out as soon as I'm done thinking about sleeping—" if Henry said any more, it was drowned out by the door to the room swinging shut behind Nanako, who couldn't really gently shut it with her arms full.

Nanako felt a smidge bad about it, but realized Henry wouldn't care because he'd be back to his book a millisecond later—and maybe, that wasn't such a bad thing. Henry was shaping up to be a little predictable, reliable in his mannerisms and even his oddities. Was it so bad to be sharing a room with someone like that?

...Maybe not, but that didn't make it any less strange.

* * *

 _ **Dining Room, 9:30 AM: Nanako Gives Credit Where Credit Is Due**_

* * *

Nanako walked into the dining room with a fresh face of makeup, her hair in a braid, and the unearned confidence of someone who _wasn't_ trapped in a building with a flock of vaguely threatening birds. That's what makeup did, after all. Well, makeup and a longing for breakfast. It wouldn't be as good as last night's dinner—Nanako's cooking was extraordinarily average, especially compared to an nationally-famed specialty chef—but she was fairly certain the miso-soup-and-rice combo she whipped up in a few minutes it would be both edible and mildly filling.

She placed her dish down on the table across from the one other person currently in the dining room—that's what happened when they didn't also plan a group breakfast, Nanako guessed—and sat down herself. "Good morning, Himitsu-san."

Saito did not answer her right away. He was busy scribbling _something_ in a small notebook (a different one from the night before—how many did he have?), while an uneaten plate of toast and eggs sat pushed to the side. After a moment he shut the notebook, pocketed it, and looked up at Nanako. "Good morning, Mochizuki-san. You seem well."

"Well, around this time yesterday, I was being attacked by a flock of birds—you were there, remember?"

"At the gruesome murder, yes."

Nanako made a half-hearted noise of amusement at the pun. "Right. And this morning… I know who everyone is, I have a better idea of my surroundings, _and_ my hair isn't a mess. So, _relatively_ speaking, today is going _great_."

"But there's so much of today yet to happen," said Saito, pulling his plate of food back over.

"It couldn't be any worse than yesterday, could it?" asked Nanako. Saito opened his mouth to respond, but Nanako cut him off. "I know, it _could_. Easily. But _I'm_ choosing to hope that it won't." She took a bite of her rice—yep, that sure was edible. "Besides, aren't _you_ at least a little bit happy? You were _right_ … sort of, about the crows being robots. Maybe your conspiracies are a little less off-base than they sound."

" _That_ was hardly a conspiracy theory, Mochizuki-san. Can _you_ think of another reasonable explanation for crows being able to imitate human speech to such a degree?"

"Reasonable? No, but from what you've told me, that hasn't necessarily stopped you before, with your Ueno-Park-Crow-Revenge."

"An that doesn't seem at least _somewhat_ possible to you, even after everything that's happened?" asked Saito.

"Mmm, not quite yet. I think I'd need a few more days of this," replied Nanako. "But, fine. If _that_ doesn't count, what _does_? What's a _real_ Himitsu-style conspiracy?"

"You're bringing me to the National Diet Library and asking me to pick, at random, a particular work out of forty-two million."

"Why do you just _know_ how many books are— you know what? Never mind. Um…" Nanako wasn't too versed on the conspiracy world herself, but she _had_ to know a couple. "Okay, so are there any dead famous people who are actually still alive? Or… are aliens trying to contact us? Ooh, or did the Americans fake their moon landing? _That's_ always an exciting one."

Saito leaned forward over the table and looked Nanako straight in the eye. "Isn't it naive to simply _assume_ the moon _exists_ , Mochizuki-san?"

She almost choked on a piece of tofu from the miso. "I'm sorry, I—" she coughed. "Did I _hear_ you correctly?"

"You haven't been there yourself, have you?"

"No, but… it's right _there_. I can _see_ it, it's in the _sky_ —" Nanako pointed towards the ceiling for emphasis. "Himitsu-san, are you saying you don't believe in the _moon_? Are you _kidding?"_

He sat up straight. "Of course I am."

"I—what?"

"I _was_ kidding. _Any_ theory involving the existence of undersea sapient life, past or present, will, of course, _need_ to take tidal patterns into account. The effects of the moon on the earth's tides—and thus, the very existence of the moon—is a natural assumption," said Saito, like that in _itself_ was a 'natural assumption.'

Nanako took another spoonful of soup to recover from the whiplash of the… joke? It wasn't actually all that foreign to her own sense of humor, just more intense. And... also laden with sincere conspiratorial beliefs. "Could you at least over-act a little, or smile _,_ or _something_ when you do that? It's a little difficult to tell your fake conspiracies from your real ones when you're entirely deadpan about both of them."

"That's the point, Mochizuki-san," he said, as seriously as he had said everything else. "I would _hope_ people were considering the _contents_ of my theories rather than my appearance or the tone of voice in which I say them."

"Himitsu-san, do you think your _looks_ are the issue?" Nanako asked, incredulously, though a little less so than she would have been if she was talking to _literally_ any other person. "Is that why you think people might be less likely to believe you?"

Saito sighed. "It's the opposite, unfortunately. I've actually amassed a following of image-obsessed fanatics based _solely_ around my appearance."

 _That_ was not the answer she was expecting, but when he said it, Nanako looked him up and down—at least what she could see above the table. If you got past his slightly odd way of dress and apparently sincere beliefs in the _underwater kingdom of Atlantis_ … well, she _could_ see him attracting a small army of followers with his _admittedly… objectively_ handsome features. "Huh... Is that a _bad_ thing?"

"Of _course_ that's a bad thing! My theories are meant to enlighten, inform, and galvanize, not to serve as some sort of middle-message between myself and a crowd whose interest in my words is purely _carnal_." Nanako stared blankly at him, and Saito sighed once again. "Mochizuki-san, if you learned people only attended your shows for the glitz and glamor of the stage rather than sincere belief in your communication with the departed, would you not _also_ be upset?"

Nanako shrugged. "Well, um… _honestly_..."

It was at that moment that Viktoriya entered the dining room, sparing Nanako from having to explain that superficiality wasn't all that uncommon in her line of work. The lieutenant colonel walked past both of them carrying what seemed like a plate of sushi from last night, nodded curtly at the space between them, and continued onto a seat at the opposite end of the table.

Nanako watched after her. "Do you think we should move over there, Himitsu-san?"

"Seeing as she made the open and conscious choice to sit away from us, I'm going to assume Viktoriya-san is accustomed to taking breakfast by herself," Saito replied.

"Mmm, you're probably right," said Nanako, picking up her half-empty bowls and, frankly, just happy to change the subject, regardless of how it was happening. "We should move over there."

He didn't seem _thrilled_ with the idea, but relented when she stood up. "Very well, Mochizuki-san."

Viktoriya addressed Nanako the moment she sat down next to her. "I heard that conversation. He was correct, you know—my morning meals are typically taken alone or in the company of military officials over discussions of strategy." It seemed _she_ wasn't _thrilled_ with the idea, either.

Fortunately, Nanako was well-versed in picking up on feelings of mild irritation, and even more well-versed in ignoring them when it suited her. "I _could_ go get Henry-san! I'm sure he knows a lot about military strategy—he's reading some book about a Russian war with Finland right now, I think."

"Pah, _that_ disgraceful exercise in futility is best left in the past," Victoria scoffed. "Even eating with near-strangers is preferable to being assailed with conversation about _belaja smert Simo Hahya_ —" oh, hey, that guy again—"or the similarities between the Suomi and Soviet submachine guns."

'Near-stranger' was better than 'enemy,' so Nanako ran with it, smiling at Saito as he joined them across the table. "Well, we don't have to talk about that! We can talk about _literally_ anything else. Is there anything _you_ want to say?" She took a bite of her rice, the universal mealtime signal that it was the other person's turn to talk. "Anything!'

Viktoriya just watched her for a moment, then muttered, " _Kogda ya yem… ya gluh i nem."_

"Russian…" Saito said under his breath, which explained why Nanako didn't understand a word of it.

"How astute, Himitsu-san. This was taught to me by one of the wisest women in my homeland."

"That's kind of cool. What does it mean?" asked Nanako.

Viktoriya thought for a moment. "The contents of those words are near untranslatable. Know that I have shared traditional Russian wisdom with you."

Nanako got the distinct impression that she was being messed with, though she didn't know enough Russian to confirm or deny that theory.

"Then, Viktoriya-san, perhaps there's more wisdom you can offer me," Saito said. Viktoriya turned to him quickly, maybe a little suspiciously. "My own personal schedule keeps me up until the early hours of the morning." Oh, wonderful, Yusei was dealing with an insomniac roommate, too. "And while I'm not sure about Mochizuki-san, I'm sure she has adequate reasoning to be eating here at this time of the day, too."

"Oh, I just take a while to get ready in the morning," Nanako explained.

Saito ignored that and continued. "But you're in the military. Not only that, but a well-enough respected member to have achieved such a title… I'm surprised you'd eat your first meal of the day at such a leisurely time."

"Ah, is that all, then?" asked Viktoriya, her expression returning to its previous 'mildly- intimidating-neutral.' "If you _must_ know, I have not quite adjusted to Japan Standard Time. Yesterday was a strange case, but now that the immediate tension and unfamiliarity of our situation has dispersed _just_ a bit… I am afraid my internal clock still believes me to be in Russia," Viktoriya said.

She seemed imperceptibly embarrassed to admit that—Nanako, though, was a little bit happy to hear about it. The cold, untouchable air that Viktoriya had cultivated the past twenty-four hours seemed almost inhuman… but _jet lag_ was a pretty human thing.

Saito hummed in understanding. "It _is…_ three-forty-five in the morning where you were, is it not?" he asked. At this point, Nanako didn't even bother asking how he casually figured that out.

"It is three-forty-five in _Moscow_ ," Viktoriya corrected. "It is _five_ -forty-five where I have been staying."

"Siberia?"

"Hardly. It's in the Urals. My battalion and many others have been stationed in Ekaterinburg for the past few years."

Saito paled visibly. "You've been stationed _there_? The... city within close proximity to Lesnoy and Novouralsk?" He grabbed his notebook and started quickly, jaggedly, scribbling _something._

"Ozyorsk, as well," said Viktoriya coolly. "Your knowledge of Russian geography is _noted_ , Himitsu-san."

Nanako, naturally, was _completely_ lost and a _bit_ concerned _._ "So, is this something _I_ should know about too _,_ or—"

Suddenly, Saito stood up and snapped his notebook shut. "Excuse me, both of you. I—I have to leave. Please enjoy the rest of your mornings." Without another word, he grabbed his still-untouched plate of food and made a beeline for the kitchen.

Nanako stared at him as he walked away, then turned to the girl next to her. "Uh… _okay_. Do you know what _that_ was all about?"

"I have not the means nor the desire to understand the machinations of a mind such as _that_ ," Viktoriya said. _Harsh, but not unreasonable_. "Besides, you have spoken to him far more often than I have; _you_ would know better."

"Um… well, a few minutes ago, he was telling me about _sapient underwater life_ , so… maybe it's a conspiracy thing?" Nanako offered.

"Ah. Yes, my country does tend to breed that sort of thinking."

"I don't really know much about international relations in the first place, so I—"

Viktoriya was not even _looking_ at her as she poured soy sauce into a small dish next to her plate of sushi. "Do not bother justifying him or yourself to me, Mochizuki-san, I _do not_ care one way or the other."

Well, at least she was honest, and at least it wasn't about the thing people tended to be honest about to Nanako. A minute of silence passed as Viktoriya ate her sushi piece by piece and Nanako stirred absently at her soup, the miso clouding the broth as she did so. "So, do you like it?"

"Why are you still here?"

Nanako blinked. "Is… that a 'no'?

"It is delicious, the best sushi I have ever tasted, and still very good after fourteen hours in the the refrigerator where it sat so that I could verify nobody else was stricken with poison or illness. Now, why are you still _here_?"

"I'm… not allowed to leave without killing somebody?" Nanako tried. "Look, I know what you were saying about poisoning food yesterday, but I _talk_ to ghosts, I don't _make_ them—"

"Mochizuki-san." Viktoriya said, sharply, and Nanako shut right the heck up. "Why are you still sitting at the table, and why are you sitting here with _me_?"

"I haven't finished my breakfast," said Nanako. She saw Viktoriya gearing up to respond, probably a bit more harshly than before, and continued quickly. "And, what, am I just supposed to _move_?"

" _That_ one," Viktoriya said, gesturing vaguely towards the kitchen, "is _paranoid_ for illogical and irrational reasons. _I_ am _apprehensive_ because I am being held in a building against my will with others who now have reason—and perhaps means—to end my life. _You_ ," she said, staring Nanako down, "do not seem to be _either_."

"Oh, I'm still kind of freaked out!" Nanako… reassured her? She had a feeling Viktoriya was about to give her a tongue-lashing, and she wasn't entirely sure how to respond. "I'm not super happy to be here either, but I'm not going to _isolate_ myself over that. It'd just make me feel worse."

"So your method of feeling better is by openly associating with those who might kill you?" Viktoriya asked. Nanako couldn't really tell if the edge to her voice was one of irritation, incredulity, or envy.

"Well, the most dangerous people here are probably you and Hikaru-san, right? You haven't tried to kill me yet, and she doesn't seem like the kind of person to do that, either." Though, to be fair, Nanako knew she was _probably_ a bit biased towards the sniper.

"And you're willing to make that judgement twenty-four hours after meeting us?" Viktoriya asked, again.

"… Yes? The _only_ thing I've seen Hikaru-san do so far is try to help people."

"That is a _foolish_ way of thinking," Viktoriya said, plainly.

"Okay," Nanako replied, pathetically. Even if Viktoriya had become a bit more human, Nanako knew she wasn't going to win an argument based on her still-intimidating aura alone. But she watched as Viktoriya finished the last of her sushi, then said, as she was taking her last bite, "I enjoyed our breakfast together."

Not a victory by any means, but she felt a tad self-satisfied as Viktoriya glared at her. "I will be taking my next meal alone." It didn't matter if Nanako had any witty retort to _that_ —not that she did—as Viktoriya then stood up and brought her plate into the kitchen almost as quickly as Saito had.

She looked back down at her own food, half eaten, the miso massing into the center of the bowl as it did when the soup lay untouched for a few minutes. Nanako stirred it around and took a bite.

What a shame—it had grown cold.

* * *

 _ **Kitchen, 10:00 AM: Nanako Audits a Cooking Class**_

* * *

Dishwashing etiquette in a place like this was unclear, but Nanako wasn't about to leave her empty bowls on the table like some kind of _heathen._ So when she finished her cold miso soup and not-as-fresh-as-it-could-have-been rice, she, too, made her way into the kitchen, and—oh, hey, there were _people_ there.

The sink was filled with a pile of foam and bubbles almost as tall as Asuka, who stood in front of it, scrubbing a pan. A pile of dripping clean dishes sat in a pile next to them. At the island was Yuki, busily arranging vegetables and rice on a bamboo mat. In the pantry was… somebody; Nanako couldn't see exactly who it was, but they were definitely rooting around in the packaged foods.

Yuki was the first person to notice her, and when he did, he turned to her, excitedly. "Mochizuki-san! Viktoriya-san ate my sushi, after all! And, she said she liked it!"

"Wait, she actually told you?" asked Nanako.

"She came in here a few minutes ago," explained Asuka, as they continued to fight whatever was sticking to the pan. "She told Tempura-san she enjoyed his sushi, she… kind of greeted me, she put her dish in the sink," they motioned towards one of the plates in the 'clean dishes' pile, "and then she left."

"That sounds about right for Viktoriya-san," said Nanako. She walked over to the sink and placed her own bowls on the opposite side of the clean pile. She'd take care of _that_ when Asuka was done with their dishwashing battle.

"Viktoriya-san did better than Himitsu-san," said Yuki. "He... did not seem well."

"He didn't say anything before he left. He just dropped his toast and eggs in the trash," Asuka said, and then they winced. "Plate and all."

"That sounds about right for Himitsu-san… fifteen minutes ago," said Nanako.

Asuka turned to her. "Is he _okay_?"

"Ehhh…" Nanako made a shaky, noncommittal hand gesture. "I'm going to look into that later." They didn't look too satisfied with that answer, but turned back to their dishes nonetheless. "So, what have you two been doing in here? Not eating breakfast, clearly."

"After stress-baking comes stress-cleaning-up," said Asuka. "I let everything soak overnight and most of them were pretty easy to clean, even the baking pans, but…" they scrubbed _more_ furiously at the frying pan they'd previously been scrubbing at _fairly_ furiously, then sighed. "Caramelizing sugar was a _mistake_."

Yuki, on the other hand pointed at his bamboo mat. "I am preparing!"

"For lunch?" asked Nanako

"No. From nine to twelve, I prepare meals for my family's restaurant. But…" His face fell. "There is no restaurant here, so I prepare for… myself, even if it is too much for me to eat."

"But if there's no restaurant here, you don't have to do that, right?"

The itamae looked at her oddly. "It is what I _always_ do. It is on my _schedule._ "

"...Fair enough." From what she'd seen of him beforehand, Nanako supposed routine and rigidity wasn't exactly unexpected from him. "Well, leave some of it in the refrigerator! I can eat it later, and I'm sure other people will, too."

Yuki nodded excitedly and got right back to his vegetable-slicing, and Nanako headed over to the pantry to properly greet the third person hanging around the kitchen. Well, not so much hanging around as 'sitting on the ground in the pantry, alone, eating pre-packaged granola straight out of the bag.'

"Good morning, Shiroma-san." She tried and failed to hide the tinges of disbelief in her voice.

"And to you as well, Mochizuki-san. You've caught me in the middle of breakfast." Yusei gave her a nod of acknowledgement and ate another few bites of granola while she stood there, wordlessly, trying to figure out exactly how to respond to this.

"Um, Shiroma-san?" Nanako began. "Why are you just eating that? Why are you eating it right out of the bag? And why are you eating it _here_?" Asami chowing down on snacks in the pantry yesterday morning was one thing, but Nanako _knew_ Yusei knew about the dining room. He'd _been there._

"Because I live by myself."

"So do I! What does that have to do with anything?" she asked.

"Because I'm used to basic, simple meals, because I don't see the point in dirtying more dishes than I must and I'm being sanitary about it," he held up his right hand, showing he was wearing one of his disposable gloves, "and because I typically eat quickly and alone. Respectively," he answered.

"Okay, well, it's not like you're running on a strict agenda here. You can take all the time you need to cook whatever you want and wash whatever dishes you make. To all of those," Nanako said. On the one hand, this really wasn't her business, on the other hand, it was a _little_ sad—if Viktoriya's attempts at self-isolation were deliberate and calculated, Yusei's seemed a bit more… due to inexperience. "Or, Tempura-san's an hour into a three-hour cooking session. I'm _sure_ he'd make something for you if you asked."

Yusei looked down at his bag of granola and kept his eyes there. "I don't want to bother anyone."

"Seriously? Did you _see_ how he reacted last night when people said they liked his sushi? _I_ can ask him, if you want—"

"Mochizuki-san, then I'd just be bothering you." With one swift (practiced?) motion, Yusei got to his feet, then looked back at her. "Dinner last night _was_ delicious. If it will make you feel better, I'll ask if Tempura-san has made anything extra I can eat."

It did—and again, Nanako wasn't a hundred percent sure why. Maybe because she was appointed unofficial social coordinator by Musubu, or maybe because one way this already pretty bad situation could get worse was if somebody started suffering from malnutrition. "I'm sure he will."

And, as it turned out, Yuki _did_ (judging by the stack of prepared food pushed off to the side of the kitchen island, at least)—but the moment he heard Yusei's half-hearted, mildly-coerced request, he was having none of it. "Shiroma-san, you do not need to eat anything I have already prepared. I will make you something new! Right now!"

"That isn't necessary, Tempura-san, I'm already inconveniencing you enough with this—"

"It is not an inconvenience. I am happy to cook for people who will enjoy my food!" Yuki said, determinedly. The juxtaposition between his behavior in the kitchen and elsewhere was _still_ a bit jarring to Nanako. "And there are so many ingredients here! I-I can cook your favorite!"

" _Just let him do it. He_ wants _to,"_ Nanako whispered.

" _Yes, but_ …"

"What do you like, Shiroma-san? What kind of sushi do you usually eat? O-or, it does not _have_ to be sushi! I am best at that, but I can saute vegetables, or make ohitashi, or soup..."

"...I generally stick to prepackaged food," said Yusei, quietly. "I don't go out a lot, and I don't really cook at home, so… I don't know."

And _that_ got _Asuka's_ attention. They dropped their now-mostly-clean pan in the sink and walked over to the island, leaning over the opposite side (as much as someone their height could, at least). "Wait, Shiroma-san, do you not eat fresh food at all? Do you know _how_ to cook?"

Nanako looked over at where they'd been standing and saw that her own bowls were now in the 'clean dishes' pile—well, that was nice of them.

"A bit. I might be able to follow a recipe, but my most thorough knowledge concerning food runs along honey's use for immunomodulatory and open-wound treatments, rather than in pastries and marinade," Yusei said. "And… most of the room in my apartment's refrigerator isn't taken up by _food_."

"Then what do you keep there?" asked Yuki.

"Specimens," said the thanatologist, flatly.

Yuki looked _justifiably_ uncomfortable, but Nanako couldn't help but giggle at the plainness with which he said it. That, and she'd sort of been desensitized to shock about twenty minutes prior. "Ew-w-w! Like, right there? With your milk, and—and, eggs, and everything?" She was grinning when she said it. "That _can't_ be good for you."

"Like I said, Mochizuki-san, I don't keep much food in there."

"But can you _cook_?" repeated Asuka, already ducking down and reaching into one of the cabinets underneath the island. Nanako couldn't see them, but she heard the clattering of pots and pans. "Because I have a few simple recipes committed to memory, and they're all pretty healthy, and I'm sure Tempura-san would be happy to help, too…"

Yuki seemed to recover from the whole 'keeping dead bodies in the fridge' thing pretty quickly—if one thing would help him do so, Nanako figured, it would probably be this—and nodded fervently.

"Well…" Yusei began.

Nanako nodded fervently, too, and tilted her head towards Yusei.

"If you're offering, Shimizu-san, I'd be happy to learn," he said, a bit less quietly than he'd been speaking before.

" _Great!_ " exclaimed Asuka, resurfacing with an armful of pans and a smile on their face, clearly hoping for this outcome since they'd first entered the kitchen. "Now, what to make… something easy that could fit in a pan or two… katsu? Croquettes? Oh, omurice is fun! And simple and nutritious, if we add vegetables."

Nanako was about to point out that not doing sushi or something sushi-adjacent seemed like a bit of a waste, given who was in the kitchen with them at the moment, but Yusei spoke up first. "I haven't had omurice since I was...ah, eight years old."

"At _all_?" asked Nanako. The dish was so ubiquitous that it seemed impossible.

"Mmm. My mother made it for me often when I was a child, but she never had the chance to teach me."

Asuka and Nanako exchanged glances, and the tutor said, "Shiroma-san, we can make something else..."

"No, no, let's do omurice. Now's a good time for me to learn, anyways."

"If—If you say so!" Within half a second, Asuka was back to their previous tutoring enthusiasm. "Tempura-san, do you know how to make it?"

"I am a Super High School Level Itamae," said Yuki, "But I am pretty good-level at other things, too."

"Great! Mochizuki-san?"

"I'll _watch_!" said Nanako, the most unexceptional cook in the room. "I know how to make it already, but it won't hurt to learn more."

And it didn't. Yuki worked diligently as support, slicing and portioning the meat and vegetables as they were needed, almost as in his element as he had been when preparing sushi, glad to be cooking for a _purpose_. Asuka was up close and personal with Yusei, standing next to him and instructing him step-by-step in the admittedly simple recipe—you made an omelette, you fried rice, you dumped the omelette over the rice. And despite what he'd said about not cooking, Yusei seemed to have a good handle on the process; the same steady hands that cut Y-incisions and examined tissues were also helpful for folding beaten eggs and stirring fried rice.

And Nanako watched _,_ and Nanako learned.

"Okay, so, _this_ step is crucial. Mochizuki-san, can you go get the ketchup from the refrigerator?" Asuka asked. Nanako did so, while Asuka went back to arranging the omelette-and-rice combo for the boy whose breakfast had consisted solely of a few fistfuls of granola. When Nanako returned, they took the ketchup, and, with a practiced hand, drew a smiley-face on the omelette.

" _That's_ the crucial part?" asked Nanako.

"Mmhmm. My little sister _insists_ this makes it taste better."

"How old is your sister?"

"Three," said Asuka, handing the place of finished omurice to Yusei. "But she's right!"

"Now when I eat this, I'll have to slice right through his face," Yusei observed, quietly. "Is that why it tastes better?"

Asuka only hesitated for a moment. "...If that works for you, then yes."

Yusei nodded solemnly. "I'll remember that for the future. The ketchup _must_ be drawn like so."

Yuki was back to preparing his own food—it wasn't quite noon, after all, and he still had that schedule of his. Asuka was starting to wash the dishes—Nanako's half-hearted attempts at helping were turned away quickly, which she didn't _really_ mind. And Yusei was on his way out to the dining room, where a few people who'd apparently eaten breakfast at responsible times were beginning to filter in so they could eat lunch at an equally responsible time.

"Thank you for the lesson, Shimizu-san. And thank you for helping, Tempura-san," he said, and walked towards the kitchen-side entrance to to the dining room. And then, he stopped. "And thank you, Mochizuki-san."

"But… I didn't actually help at all."

"Not with the cooking," Yusei clarified, and then, without any further explanation, he marched out to the dining room. He took a seat at the table—not _next_ to Hinawa, but close enough that the two could engage in conversation if they chose to do so.

Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't. But Nanako couldn't help but feel a little bit of _something_ —pride? Accomplishment? Maybe just a little bit of general positivity, now that Yusei was seated at the dining room table rather inside the pantry. And as he drew his knife across the smiling ketchup face, spilling the fluffy omelette innards out onto the fried rice, Yusei looked almost-happy, too.

* * *

 _ **West Hall, 12:27 PM: Nanako Remembers There's Another Hallway**_

* * *

It was difficult to visualize without a map or floor plans, but as far as Nanako could tell, the building was vaguely rectangular, with four hallways, the lounge filling the space between them, and rooms lining the outer edges. The southern hall held twin doors to the lounge and the entry hall, the northern, all their bedrooms, the eastern, entrances to the kitchen, dining room, and various convenience-oriented areas, and the western… well _something_ had to be there. Nothing notable enough for Saito or Musubu to mention after their search of the area, but… something, physically.

And _she_ was gonna find out.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: West Hall**

Take a guess.

* * *

It wasn't difficult to reach, as the corner turning into the hallway was literally ten feet away from the entrance to her and Henry's room—the only reason she hadn't checked it out earlier was because so much of her business was dining-room-adjacent. It seemed about as long as its parallel twin and, while she couldn't confirm it exactly, mostly symmetrical—at least, with the east hall's laundry room and the first room she came across in the west.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: Showers**

If only cleaning your body cleaned your mind and your conscience.

* * *

It didn't sound like anyone was in there—not surprising, given that noon-thirty wasn't exactly peak showering time—so Nanako took a look around. Structurally, it was pretty similar to a large bathroom: eight individual stalls equipped with a showerhead and various hygienic sundries. It was a _little_ weird for them to all be in the same room, but at least the showers themselves were separated. And at least the room was clean. Nanako really hoped she wouldn't _have_ to use it, but at least she knew she _could_.

The next room over also had a clear east hall counterpart.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: West Bathroom**

For conducting business in the West Hall.

* * *

It seemed to be exactly the same as the other one, except for its physical location. Well… this one was closer to her bedroom, at least. That was convenient.

And still, the hall similarities continued.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: West Storage Closet**

Because you can't put _everything_ in the East Closet.

* * *

It probably didn't warrant a full look-around, especially since none of the other closets had held anything particularly unique or useful, so Nanako settled for just standing near the entrance, and calling inside. "So, which Kaminaga is in _here_?"

" _This one_!" a voice called back, from the walk-in.

"What? I—" Nanako poked her head into the large closet, then sighed, just a bit. "Musubu-san, that was _supposed_ to be a joke."

"Ha, I figured. But I'm a sleuth, so it's my job to poke around _everywhere_. Besides, Tsumugu told me he looked around the closet in the other hallway, so I thought I'd take this one to even it out."

"I only wish I could be of more assistance to you, Musubu-san." It seemed the sleuth wasn't the only one hanging around the storage closet—the shrine maiden had joined in the fun, too. "Unfortunately, I've never been much of a detective."

"Aw, don't feel bad, Tachibana-san. It's always nice to have people to bounce ideas off of—I think you're more helpful than you realize!" said Musubu. Nanako wasn't sure whether or not to take that as an invitation to the closet party, but, fortunately for any latent claustrophobia any of them might have had to deal with, Musubu led Nozomi outside to join Nanako instead.

"Did you two find anything helpful?" Nanako asked. She wasn't feeling too optimistic, but figured it didn't hurt to inquire.

And Musubu's facial expression pretty much confirmed her thoughts. "Not really, just more supplies. Shampoo, soap, conditioner… a _huge_ stack of towels…" she trailed off. It didn't take a Super High School Level Sleuth to put two and two together—this was not a small cache for a brief period of time.

"It's good to know that we'll all be well-supplied if we _must_ spend more nights here, won't it?" Nozomi tried, gently.

"I go through at _least_ two of those every time I shower," added Nanako, expertly hiding her disappointment under a thin layer of mild self-deprecation.

"Ha, thanks, you two. Keep up those attitudes… I think we're going to need them," said Musubu. "That was the last room I had to thoroughly search, so for now, we really _are_ down to Hikaru-san's idea."

Oof. It was one thing for the vague consensus to be drawn, but it was another for that vague consensus to be verbally confirmed by the person Nanako _frankly_ had the most faith in at this point. "Well… it wasn't a bad one?"

"No, not at all. It's just…" Musubu thought for a moment. "Frustrating, you know? When you're stuck in a situation you can't control, and there's nothing you can do to get out of it." She shrugged. "Looking for answers and solutions to problems is what I _do_."

Nozomi nodded. "I can understand that. But it hasn't even been twenty-four hours since last night… we can hold out a bit longer."

"Tachibana-san, you're a _fountain_ of positivity—and I mean that in a good way!"

"Well... " Nozomi smiled, just a little. "That _is_ what _I_ do."

The sleuth turned to Nanako. "So, Tachibana-san and I were looking around a little. What have you been up to, Mochizuki-san?"

"Uhhh…" What _had_ she been up to? "Well, I put on makeup, I brushed my hair, I ate breakfast… I talked to people?" It felt a little underwhelming when compared to her classmates who had _actually_ been doing things… but then again, one of those people she'd had a conversation with was _Viktoriya_ , so maybe Nanako had accomplished something after all. "Nothing like you two have been doing, though."

"We've been doing a lot of talking, too! Right, Tachibana-san?" Musubu asked, and Nozomi hummed in agreement. "Like… oh, we figured out I've actually visited her hometown before, and I didn't even realize it!"

"Really?" Nanako asked. "Do you two live near each other?"

"No, Tsumugu and I are from the Taito ward in Tokyo, and…

"...I'm from Higashiosaka," Nozomi finished.

"So, not at _all,_ then?"

"It's only a few hours on the train," Musubu said. "Especially if you spring for the faster ones."

"I guess it—wait, wait," said Nanako, quickly realizing that a prime opportunity had arisen. "Musubu-san, does that mean you..."

Nozomi made the same realization pretty quickly and sighed, though without any sincere exasperation. "Go ahead, Mochizuki-san."

"...you took the _Nozomi_ to _Nozomi_?"

"Actually, we usually stuck with the Hikari trains, since they were a little less expensive and less crowded," said Musubu, amusedly. "But I _did_ kind of walk right into that, didn't I? Sorry, Tachibana-san, I'm sure you've heard that joke a million times."

"It was the first time I got to _make_ it, though!" Nanako protested. It wasn't like she was particularly fond of puns, either—that one had just fallen into her lap.

"At least it's been a few months since the last time. It's mostly popular with autumn tourists traveling to Osaka who stop to see my family's shrine. You know, they'll say something like, ' _You're_ Nozomi? We just took your train to get here!'" The shrine maiden said, in a slightly higher voice than usual. "Though, that reminds me. Musubu-san, you never mentioned _why_ you visited Higashiosaka. Were you on a family vacation?"

"Not quite," said Musubu. "It was more of an activity! Our Schools Detectives' Club headed out there over Golden Week two years ago."

"Oh, that sounds lovely."

"Mmhmm. We were after a notorious burglar who committed a string of robberies in the area!"

"Oh. That sounds…" Nozomi hesitated for a moment. "...a bit less lovely?"

"It sounds kind of crazy!" exclaimed Nanako, speaking for the both of them. "Did a club at your _middle school_ school really go around solving actual _crimes_?"

Musubu smiled. "Of course not! We were kids—we _are_ kids. We didn't actually try to catch the robber, we just interviewed some local people about them… And spent some time exploring Osaka in general! It was the first time any of us had ever been farther west than Nagano." She looked off to the side, a bit wistfully. "That was a good trip."

"It certainly _sounds_ eventful," said Nozomi.

Musubu looked back over at Nozomi. "Say, Tachibana-san. I'm two years late, but do you have any comments on the string of robberies around Higashiosaka and the capital a few years ago?"

"Mmmm... " Nozomi looked troubled. "To be honest, Higashiosaka itself has some less-savory areas, not to mention parts of Osaka proper like Tobita or Kamagasaki... what I'm saying is, there were enough burglaries than none particularly stick out to me."

"Oh, I see."

"Not that my hometown is a terrible place, by any means!" Nozomi cut in. She turned to Nanako, then back to Musubu. "You should both feel free and safe to visit there, at any point…"

"It's okay, Tachibana-san, you don't have to defend it!" said Musubu, smiling. "It's not like we ever felt _unsafe_. We were smart, and besides, the robberies we were looking into weren't violent. And as far as we could tell, the burglar only targeted corporations and money-lending companies, not individual people."

"That _does_ seem significantly less dangerous," Nozomi conceded.

Besides, everyone's hometowns have good and bad points. Right, Mochizuki-san?"

"Yeah! I lived in a village of… seven-hundred or so people," Nanako said.

"Wait, is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" asked Musubu.

"...Yes."

"I do suppose you wouldn't have to worry about things like robberies, now, would you?" asked Nozomi.

"Yeah, well, theft doesn't happen where _nothing_ happens," said Nanako. "Good points and bad points, just like Musubu-san said."

"Just like right now," said the sleuth. `

"Weeeeellll, I don't know if I'd go _that_ far. I was allowed to _leave_ my hometown."

"Not this _whole_ experience," Musubu explained. "I mean, _literally_ right now! I didn't find what I'd hoped in the closet, but I got to investigate something, in the end!" She gestured to the both of them.

" _Please_ tell me if knowing the population of a small island off the coast of Shimane prefecture helps with _anything,_ " said Nanako, half-seriously. Though, if anyone was going to do _something_ useful with that knowledge, it _would_ likely be Musubu.

"Hey, you never know! It doesn't hurt to have too much information. Right, Tachibana-san?"

"I… suppose?"

"Aww, what happened to that encouraging attitude a few minutes ago?"

"I _suppose!_ " said Nozomi, more firmly this time around.

"Oh, speaking of investigating," Nanako began, pointing at the two rooms farther down the west hallway. "What else is down the hall?"

"That's the study and the…" Musubu sighed. "The _workout room_."

"You don't seem happy about that," said Nanako.

Nozomi shook her head. "She's upset that we couldn't figure out a proper equivalent to a room on a Cluedo board."

"I'm not _upset_ , just a little disappointed," Musubu refuted. "We had such a good pattern going on with all the other big rooms, and that one just broke the whole thing down… I'm still not convinced we shouldn't just go ahead and call it the ballroom, either."

"That evokes an _entirely_ different image, Musubu-san."

"We'll work on it," she compromised, and Nozomi half-smiled at that.

"Either way, _I'm_ going to go check them out."

"I'll go make sure my brother hasn't gotten into too much trouble."

"I… am going to take a nap," said Nozomi.

"Are you tired?" asked Nanako. She hadn't really figured Nozomi for the afternoon nap type of person.

"A bit. Truthfully, I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted last night."

"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense."

And it did… sort of. As Nanako headed in the opposite direction from the other two, she couldn't help but wonder: _was this building populated entirely by insomniacs?_

* * *

 _ **Study, 1:15 PM: Nanako Sees a Cold War**_

* * *

Nanako wasn't actually sure what to picture when she heard the word 'study' applied to a room—her homes had ranged from 'small house on an island' to 'small apartment in the capital of the prefecture,' so the idea just seemed… unfamiliar to her. Those were for people who lived in bigger places, who enjoyed reading more than she did, and who wanted a bit of Western-style flair in their palatial estates.

Someone like… whoever made this place, apparently.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: Study**

Well, this _was_ supposed to be a _school_ field trip.

* * *

It was actually a bit closer to a library, what with the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf that lined the far wall. The room in general was largely western-style, save for the nigh-ten-gale flooring and a large rug that seemed vaguely Middle Eastern in origin. Otherwise, it was furnished with a writing desk in the corner of the room, a few wooden end-tables with lamps or decorations that Nanako was in no hurry to accidentally knock over, and a plush sofa and some comfortable-looking chairs around an antique-looking coffee table.

Three students were crammed onto that sofa, crowded around _something_ on the table, talking fervently—arguing?

" _No,_ Hiro-chan, keep your hand straight! If you bend it like that, you're going to end up with sloppy lines and the pieces won't fit together right!

"I—It's hard when you're all up in my face like that, Watari—"

"Chika-chan, how does this look?"

"Wooow! That's way better than _his_ , Tsukuyomi-chan!"

"Aww, c'mon... "

Well, maybe 'arguing' wasn't quite right, either. Figuring that a fourth party wouldn't do anything good for the already cramped couch, Nanako opted to take a seat across from it, where she had full view of Henry, Ichika, Nelly, and the colorful, misshapen panes of glass scattered across the table in front of them. She picked one of them up and examined it—it wasn't glass at all, but considerably less-fragile plastic.

"Chibu-chan! Did you come to practice stained glass with us?" Ichika asked, still grasping Henry's wrist correctively and, it seemed, a bit painfully.

"Sorry, Watari-san, I'm not much of an artist," Nanako replied.

"It's okay! Neither is Hiro-chan."

Henry raised his un-grasped hand defeatedly. "I'm Hiro-chan."

"What, like… super-hiro?" asked Nanako.

"Well, I was thinking something like Hirofumi Hayashi," Henry said, like Nanako knew who the heck that was. "But that's not what Watari said."

"I just thought it fit," Ichika sort-of explained. "But now I want to change it to Kowamado-chan, 'cause his work is all messy!"

"It's not _that_ bad, Chika-chan," said Nelly, turning away from her own arrangement of stained plastics. "See? The pieces are even fitting together now!"

"Yeah! Henry-san, I can definitely tell that's a…" A pile of jagged orange and white shards of plastic were unceremoniously shoved together in a vaguely T-shaped pattern on the table in front of Henry. "A cross?" Nanako tried.

Henry sighed. "It's _supposed_ to be a sword."

"Oh. That's… military-esque."

"Well, I'd mostly hoped it'd just be easy," Henry admitted. "I wasn't really planning to try my hand at this today..."

"But I'm happy that you are!" said Nelly, encouragingly. Nanako _thought_ she saw Ichika's eye twitch at that comment, but she wasn't entirely sure, and besides, Nelly was still talking. "I only know about this because of the antiquing! Sometime when you get something _reaaaally_ old, you have to repaint it or repair it. And Chika-chan's good because it's her whole _job_ to be good!"

Ichika nodded proudly. "This is stained glass for beginners! Usually you use special cutting tools and a soldering iron and… uh, glass, but this is good for people who are just starting out. Now I can show Tsukuyomi-chan how to do it!"

"And Henry-chan," said Nelly.

" _And_ Hiro-chan," Ichika repeated, in her own way.

"That's… convenient," Nanako observed. "All of this stuff was just sitting around in here for you to use?"

"Hm? No, this was in my room, in a bag under my bed!" said Ichika. "I found it this morning. I don't know _why_ I had it, but I'm super glad I did!"

On the one hand, Nanako wasn't sure either. On the other hand, the makeup wipes that just so happened to be in her bedroom were godsends, too. It was yet _another_ mystery for the mystery pile, but a much more convenient one that she didn't necessarily want someone-who-would-probably-be-Musubu to solve right away.

"Oooookay!" said Nelly, suddenly and triumphantly. "I'm done, Chika-chan! How does it look?"

Ichika looked over, and so did Nanako. It was no grand work of art, but unlike Henry's, the design was easily recognizable—a white crescent moon on a dark blue background. She assumed the tiny white plastic shards that dotted the background were supposed to be stars.

"It's pretty, Tsukuyomi-chan!"

"My dad and I have some stained glass in our collection, but none of them have the moon or any planets or anything like that on them," Nelly explained.

Ichika nodded sagely. "Well, most of the traditional stuff is about religions or pretty geometry, and the moon's not really any of that."

"I guess that's true…"

"But that doesn't mean there's no room for it," Henry cut in. "It's okay if it's not traditional, right? You're a pioneer in the field, Nelly."

Nelly looked like she genuinely hadn't considered that. "Wow… thanks, Henry-chan!"

"Hey! I was gonna say that next!" Ichika protested. "I make stuff that isn't traditional all the time!"

"Like what?" Nanako asked, legitimately curious. It wasn't like stained glass filled the streets of Japan, so she was mostly aware of it from the vague cultural consciousness of what a fancy church looked like.

"Like… like sculptures!" said Ichika. "Big sculptures with a thousand different pieces! And, um… oh! I made a big mural for Aizu-Shimogou station because the one in Moriya's so popular. It's Murasaki Shibuku and _Genji Monogatari_ , and that's different, 'cause most of the famous stained glass in the west is religious stuff in churches and mosques!" Nelly seemed suitably regaled by this information, and thus, Ichika seemed suitably satisfied.

And _then_ Henry spoke up again. "Murasaki Shibuku's from a real long time ago, Watari—" Henry started.

"Well, _yeah,_ Hiro-chan, _Genji Monogatari_ was the first book written, like, _ever!_ "

"—I was gonna _ask._ You ever tried anything a little more recent?"

Ichika hesitated for a moment. "...what?"

"You know, you were saying before that all the other stained glass you saw was traditional and religious, so that's probably from way back in the day. And the Murasaki stuff, that's from, what, the twelfth century?"

"Hey, I just want to throw out that I _knew_ that," said Nanako, for the first and probably last time over the course of the conversation she wasn't really a part of.

"Proud of you, Mochizuki," Henry said. "Anyways, Watari, you ever think of making a scene from… I dunno, a little more recently?

Ichika opened her mouth to say something Nanako only assumed would be a variation of 'no and also shut up,' but Nelly got there first. "That's such a cool idea, Henry-chan!"

"That's—it, could be kinda cool, I _guess_ ," said Ichika.

"You got a lot of changes in society, a couple of performance art styles developing, just… a _ton_ of conflict going on since the sixteen-hundreds…" Henry listed. "Plenty of things to put on a window."

Ichika watched as he did so, then, harshly and deliberately, turned her full attention to Nelly. "Tsukuyomi-chan, do _you_ have any ideas?"

Henry caught Nanako's eyes and shrugged _vigorously._

"I dunno… I kind of like Henry-chan's idea about the performing, though!" Nelly said, blissfully oblivious to the undercurrent of passive aggression flowing through the room. "Do you think anyone has ever made stained glass with kabuki performers on it, Chika-chan?"

"Hmm, _someone_ probably has," said Ichika. "I don't know if it's such a good idea…"

"But, nobody with the title _Super High School Level Stained Glass Artist_ has ever made it before!" Nelly pushed. "So if _you_ do it, it'll look nicer than all the other ones!"

Ichika paused for a moment, apparently running the mental pros and cons of how following through with the innocent, sincere flattery meant going along with an idea that Henry had suggested.

The historian in question shook his head at Nanako, as if to say _I don't know what I did wrong._

Nanako tilted her head back and gestured toward Ichika vaguely, as to say _then why would_ I?

"Okay, you're right, Tsukuyomi-chan," Ichika finally concluded, ending their nonverbal conversation. "Hiro-chan, take your sword apart, okay? I wanna use some of the white pieces to help plan out how I'd make the face paint."

"But, my—"

"It's okay, Henry-chan! We're going to help Chika-chan make stained glass, and it'll look really pretty!"

" _We?_ But, he—"

"Right?" She asked, smiling broadly at both of them. "Even though Chika-chan will have to do most of the hard work, it'll be the best if we all help plan it together!"

And apparently neither of them could say no to that, as both Henry and Ichika sighed and gave some variation of _sure_.

Nanako took that opportunity to get up, wave to the three of them who were half-paying attention to what she was doing, and slip out of the study—she was no expert on stained glass, kabuki, or mediating vague conflicts between two people who had something against each other she wasn't quite privy to.

As she headed out the study door, she was fairly certain she heard some shards drop to the ground as Ichika swiped her hand across Henry's stained-plastic sword to destroy it, and she was fairly certain she heard Henry protest, and she was fairly certain she heard Ichika protest back.

She did not turn around to make sure.

* * *

 _ **Workout Room, 1:58 PM: Nanako Appreciates Anyone Who Could Bench Press Her, Honestly**_

* * *

...Besides, it wasn't like the study was her final destination—she still had to visit one room to finish her west hall tour.

* * *

 **Room Discovered: Workout Room**

Almost as good as exercising in the fresh air! Almost.

* * *

The first thing Nanako was greeted with upon entering the room was a pair of voices.

"Hey, think fast!"

"Wait, Kurogane, that isn't—"

"Oh, shit!"

The second thing Nanako was greeted with upon entering the room was fifteen pounds of _something_ hitting her square in the chest. She stumbled back a few steps out of the room and fell onto her bottom, dazed but instinctually clutching the thing that had struck her.

"You didn't have to throw it at her, either."

"It wasn't a _throw,_ Hikaru, it was a _toss_." A jacket-less Asami came out into the hallway, looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry, Mochizuki, you all good?"

"I think…?" Nanako took a closer look at what she was holding: a black-and-blue striped ball marked _15_. "What's this?"

"A medicine ball! Hikaru and I were using it for strength training, and I wouldn't have tossed it over this way if I realized it was _you_ comin' in—good catch, though!"

It _technically_ was, Nanako guessed, as she released the ball and let it roll into her lap. Oh, 'ballroom.' Nanako suddenly got what Musubu had been saying earlier. She tried picking it up—she could, but it wasn't exactly light.

Asami, on the other hand, scooped it up easily in one arm, and with the other, grabbed Nanako's hand and yanked the ghost whisperer to her feet. Nanako was a bit too disoriented to fully appreciate it. "C'mon, let me show you what we're doing!"

* * *

 **Room Re-discovered: Workout Room**

Watch for flying objects.

* * *

Forget what she'd thought about any other room in the building—the kitchen, the laundry room, the lounge—all of it paled in comparison to the Kaminaga-coined workout room, at least in terms of sheer _contrast_. The architecture, walls, flooring, and vaguely nature-and-dojo-inspired decorations clashed marvelously with the modern exercise equipment spread around the room with little rhyme or reason.

Of course, it wasn't the aesthetics of the _room_ Nanako was focused on.

"So, what you do is…" Asami raised the ball over and behind her head. "This is for your triceps." She threw the ball a few feet across the room to Hinawa, who caught it at her chest and bent at the knees as she did so. "And _that's_ for your quads and hamstrings. It's two-in-one strength training!"

"Mmhmm. I don't think Mochizuki got the full experience, though," Hinawa said, effortlessly carrying the ball as she walked over to the both of them.

"Well, yeah, I would've started her at…" Asami gave Nanako a once-over. "Maybe just a few pounds _,_ to begin with."

"That is _absolutely_ not what I meant."

"Awww, come _on_. Like I said, I didn't think it would be _Mochizuki_ —"

"Wait, who did you think it would be?" asked Nanako, briefly exiting her reverie. Someone athletically capable, she hoped, if Asami was going to suddenly yet casually drag them into a workout.

"Viktoriya!" Aaaaaand, _that_ would be someone more athletically capable.

"You said she wasn't coming," Hinawa said.

Asami shook her head. "I didn't say that!" She looked at Nanako. "I didn't. What I said, was: I knocked on her door, and when she answered it, I said, 'hey, I'm gonna go work out over in the room with all the weights, do you wanna come too,' and _she_ said, 'go away,' and _I_ was like 'but Hikaru's gonna be there, and you hate her less than everyone else!'" Asami took a breath. "And then she shut the door in my face."

"And you took that as a _yes?"_ Nanako asked, incredulously.

"I took it as a _maybe._ "

"Yeah, I'd take it as a _no_ ," said Hinawa. "And where'd you get _that_ idea?"

"What idea?"

"That Viktoriya doesn't—" Hinawa shook her head. "Actually, never mind. Forget about that. You didn't come here to work out either, did you, Mochizuki?"

"No, I'm just looking around. Was it that obvious?"

"Between the dress, the makeup, and, uh…"

"The fact that I clearly haven't lifted anything heavier than a suitcase in the past decade?" Nanako offered.

"I wasn't going to _say_ that. But, yeah," Hinawa admitted.

Someone who knew what they were doing could certainly make good use of the inflatable exercise balls over by the side of the room—Nanako was not one of those people. Rather, she just walked over and sat on one of them like an especially bouncy chair, and rested chin in her hands and her elbows on her knees. "Don't feel like you need to stop on my behalf, though! I'm just happy to watch."

"Watch?! You think you're gonna get any better by watching?" Asami called, from the back wall perpendicular to her—specifically, near a rack of similarly-colored medicine balls against said wall. "Look alive, Mochizuki!"

"Wait, why—" was all Nanako had time to get out before a much lighter but similarly startling medicine ball came flying at her. Fortunately, she managed to get her arms out in a vaguely catching-oriented position before impact. Unfortunately, her legs didn't get the memo and she ended up losing her balance and falling right off the inflatable exercise ball. She saw Hinawa smack her head in frustration as she went down.

"Kurogane—"

"I _gave_ her a warning this time!" For the second time in the span of a few minutes, Asami walked over to where Nanako was sitting on the ground. "Okay, so we're gonna need to work on your balance, which isn't what the medicine ball toss is _usually_ about, but I think we can make some changes…"

"Maybe we should move on," suggested Hinawa, in a tone of voice that implied it was actually not a suggestion at all. She scanned the room, then pointed at a rack next to the medicine balls. "They have weights. Let's do weights."

Again, Asami grabbed Nanako's hand and helped her to her feet, and again, it was just a _little_ too short-lived for Nanako's taste. "Okay! Mochizuki, we're doing weights now."

"We? But, like Hikaru-san said! I'm wearing a dress! I haven't lifted a weight in my life! I just want to _watch!_ " Nanako protested. This was Ichika and the stained-plastic all over again. Couldn't people just be satisfied _knowing_ they were better than her at things without having to _see_ it?

"Aww, but I'd help! I'd spot for you and everything," Asami said.

"What does 'spot' mean?"

"She'll stand over you and help you lift," Hinawa called from the weight rack.

"Oh... well, in that case, tell me what I'm supposed to do," said Nanako, better judgement flying _right_ out the nonexistent window. "Which ones should I pick up?"

"Hmm…" Asami stared at her for a moment. "Hikaru, what's the lowest they have?" It was a fair question.

"Looks like it's forty pounds for barbells."

Asami looked over at Hinawa, then back at Nanako. "Aaaaaanything else?"

"They've got dumbells too—yeah, here's five pounds."

" _Perfect!"_

"Okay, I can… _probably_ lift more than that," said Nanako.

"I'd hope so. But it's not about how much you can lift, it's about how much you can _keep_ lifting," said Hinawa, walking over to the both of them with two ten-pound dumbells. She handed one of them to Nanako. "See? That wasn't difficult, Kurogane."

"Yeah, yeah."

Nanako tried the weight—it wasn't _that_ difficult to do something vaguely resembling a bicep curl, but she realized it could get kind of tiring if she were to do it over and over again. "So... do I just do this over and over again?"

"Only if you want to tear a tendon," said Hinawa. "Make sure your arms are straight and keep your elbows close to your torso."

"Like this?" Nanako asked, doing something that felt entirely unnatural.

"Nah, you gotta keep your elbows _real_ close," said Asami, holding Nanako's arms in the correct position and facilitating the ghost whisperer in doing something equally as unnatural but a _bit_ more pleasant.

"You can do squats or sit-ups at the same time when you're using those, but since you're wearing that outfit, you should probably stick to curls," Hinawa said.

"Sit-ups? How—"

"Carefully," Hinawa answered, and turned back to the weight rack. "Kurogane, what do you use?"

"I've been doing forty!" Hinawa handed her the appropriate (much larger) dumbells, and she began working her arms in a more correct way than Nanako had been doing. "What about you, Hikaru?"

Hinawa, conversely, was eyeing up the barbells. "I think I'll stick to deadlifts."

"Wait, those are so much bigger," Nanako observed, correctly. "How much do those weigh? How much can you _lift_?"

"I usually do reps at two-forty for bench and one-fifty for shoulder, but my deadlift record's three-seventy."

"That is _so many pounds_." Nanako had no idea what else Hinawa was talking about, but she was duly impressed and duly enthralled. "That last one is three of me. You could just… casually lift three times my weight?"

"It's my _record,_ so it wouldn't be casual…"

"Hey, I'm almost there!" Asami cut in. "I'm only at three-twenty for deadlifts, but that's not too shabby either."

What was she supposed to _do_ with this information? Nanako pondered (and lifted, and watched) over a few moments of… _lightly_ concupiscent silence before Asami spoke up again. "Yeah, sucks that we're kinda stuck with all this strength-training stuff, though."

"What? Why?"

"'Cause you gotta keep your workouts balanced, Mochizuki!"

"No, I mean, why are you _stuck_ with it?" The equipment in the workout room wasn't organized in any special way—in fact, even as a newcomer, she could tell it seemed more hastily spread towards the sides of the room—but it wasn't like there was a _lack_ of stuff to use. "This all seems like stuff any normal gym would have, right?"

"Yeah, if you've never been to a gym before," said Hinawa. Well, she wasn't wrong. "We have those exercise balls over there, but otherwise there's not a lot here to help us work on flexibility, balance, or cardio."

"Oh." Nanako was beginning to feel the strain of all five of those pounds in her arm, and realized she wouldn't want to be strength-training on a daily basis, either. "So you two can't do any of that other stuff?"

"I mean, we could work out balance and flexibility, but…" Hinawa trailed off. "We don't have any treadmills or outdoor space to use for running, so a lot of our cardio options are off the table for now."

The explanation made Nanako feel just a tad more _stuck_ —it wasn't like she'd had any desire to run for fun or fitness in the past couple… forevers, but she didn't enjoy the realization that she _couldn't._

"Unless…" said Asami, dropping her arm.

"Unless?" repeated Hinawa.

"Okay, hear me out—the hallways are just a big rectangle, right?"

Hinawa caught on quickly. "No."

"Come _on_ , Hikaru! Don't you _like_ running? Aren't you _good_ at it?"

"Yeah, I've been running every day since I started training. Doesn't change the fact that these are _indoor hallways._ With _people."_

"With floors the squeak weirdly every time you step on them!" Nanako added helpfully.

"So, anyone in the way would hear us _coming,"_ said Asami.

"So, we'd sound _annoying_ ," Hinawa clarified.

"Ugh, fiiiiine," said Asami, returning her dumbell to the rack. She didn't seem like the kind of person to give up on something like so easily—and, as it turned out, she was not. " _I'll_ take a lap. And when I come back and I'm suuuuuuuuper aerobically worked-out, you're gonna want to run one, too!" She pointed at Nanako. "Mochizuki, you're excused for today because of that outfit, but don't think that'll get you out of anything in the future."

"Wait, what?" Lifting weights with Asami gently adjusting her technique was one thing. _Running_ was another beast entirely.

"Kurogane, you don't have to—" Before she could finish her sentence, Asami was out the door of the workout room, assumedly headed for a nice lap around the halls. She smacked her forehead. " _Un_ believable."

"I _know,_ right?" Like Nanako herself, the sentiment went many different ways.

"Reckless, incorrigible..." Hinawa returned her own barbell—Nanako finally saw the marking on it, three-hundred-ten pounds, goodness _gracious_ —and leaned up against the wall next to the rack.

"I feel like that was pretty obvious from…" When Nanako had first met her and she threw food at one of the crows, but Hinawa hadn't been there for _that_. "She yelled at the big crow. A _few_ times."

"She did," said Hinawa, plainly.

"So you knew what you were walking into—or, working out with."

"...I guess I did." Hinawa made some sort of noise between a sigh and an annoyed grunt. "I'm not actually upset with her. I _can't_ be, she's the only one who went and _actively_ asked me to do something with her."

"Yeah, she really is…" An invite-er? An include-er? Nanako didn't know if there was a word to describe that aspect of Asami. Finally, she settled on, "She's friendly, right?"

"Mmm. I, uh… appreciate that about her." She broke eye contact with Nanako immediately after she said it.

And so, the ghost whisperer tried to shift the subject just a bit. "Well, it was nice of her either way. What would you have been doing otherwise?"

"We all agreed to wait for Hope's Peak, so… waiting, I guess. Walking around aimlessly. Eating meals at the appropriate times. Seeing if Shiroma was doing anything overtly dangerous. Sitting in my room if I didn't know what else to do."

"I feel like walking around or _any_ of that other stuff would be better than sitting in your room. If I were doing that…" Without her roommate, she'd be staring at the wall all day. But with him… "I don't think I'd be able to listen to Henry-san talk about the Winter War for more than a few minutes."

Hinawa actually perked up a bit when Nanako said that. "Oh, yeah. That's the one with the Simo Häyhä guy, right?"

And there he was again! "Okay, really? How do you know about that guy? I know my education wasn't _phenomenal_ , but there's no _way_ that's common knowledge."

"I only know about him because he was a sniper. The _best_ one, numerically."

Nanako… _guessed_ that made sense. "Then why is—"

She was interrupted by the telltale squeaking of the nigh-ten-gale floors, followed by Asami bounding back into the workout room. "Okay, so… _good_ news is that the hallway _is_ a rectangle, we _can_ run in it, and I feel _mostly_ great."

"And the bad news?" Hinawa asked.

"Doesn't matter how squeaky the floors are—people still aren't gonna react in time if you're turning a corner." She looked sheepish again. "Tempura didn't deserve that…"

Oof. Even Nanako wouldn't want to be hit full-force by an oncoming Asami.

"But! He's okay, and we can still make it work! Just stay away from the corners, and keep our eyes peeled." Asami looked at Hinawa. "We gotta get that cardio, Hikaru!"

"Are you going to do it even if I won't?"

"Mmmm… If you _really_ wanted to stay here and work on balance or something, I we _could_ do that," Asami conceded. "But I want to _run."_

Hinawa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "...Fine."

"Really?" Nanako and Asami both asked, almost simultaneously.

" _One_ lap."

"Yes!" Asami pumped her fist in the air. "Trust me, Hikaru! You're gonna like it so much you're gonna want to do more!" She pointed at Nanako. "And _you're_ gonna like it when we do it again tomorrow!"

"Okay, wait, I didn't actually—"

"It'll be _fun!_ " Asami said, halfway out the door before Nanako had a chance to finish her thoughts. "Hikaru, if you don't hurry up, I'm gonna lap you!"

"That implies we're doing more than one lap!" Hinawa called back. She gave Nanako a brief, stiff wave. "See you, Mochizuki. If we're here tomorrow… good luck with tomorrow."

And she ran off after Asami, leaving Nanako with two five-pound weights still in-hand, a mild strain in her arms, and a cloud of thoughts that were mildly frustrated in more ways than one.

* * *

 _ **North Hall, 4:27 PM: Nanako Talks Television**_

* * *

Nanako was lucky she'd found the showers, and luckier still that approximately zero other people wanted to take one at three in the afternoon. It's not like her pathetic attempts at arm curls had worked up much of a sweat (her heart rate had probably risen more when Asami helped her exercise rather than when she exercised herself), but taking a shower after working out—or just spending a significant amount of time in the "workout room"—felt right, somehow. Or maybe it was less "just after she worked out" and more "she literally couldn't remember the last time she showered and while she didn't feel _particularly_ dirty it probably didn't _hurt._ "

Either way. Between showering, getting changed, reapplying her makeup, redoing her hair which, naturally, came after drying her hair, which was _always_ a production: she walked out of the bathroom in the east hall about two hours after her quote-unquote workout. And when she did, she saw just one other person loitering around a few feet away from her.

She wasn't entirely sure why she didn't just walk past the situation at hand. All of her previous experience—all thirty-six hours of it—had told her that nothing good would come of even remotely involving herself here, but still… Nanako couldn't shake the sense of familiarity she experienced as she walked towards him.

Hyun-ki stood in front of bedroom number one, arm vaguely outstretched in a scene reminiscent of his roommate's actions the previous morning. But while Yuki had seemed nervous, Hyun-ki just seemed pensive—maybe a bit conflicted. Conflicted enough that Nanako decided she might as well share her likely unwanted opinion on the situation.

"Look, I talked to Viktoriya-san this morning, and I heard about her after that, and I'm not sure if she's going to be… receptive."

"What? Who—" Hyun-ki turned to face her, irritated. " _Oh_."

"I'm _just_ saying," said Nanako, raising her arms defensively.

"Great. I'll keep that in mind." Nanako took that as her cue to keep walking on. Or she would have, if she hadn't heard him knock on the door and call, quietly, "Katou?"

Nanako stopped in her tracks. "Wait."

"...Do you _need_ something, Mochizuki?"

She whirled around. "Um, yeah! I need to know why you want to see _that_ guy!"

"What? _Why?_ "

"He's—have you _talked_ to him?"

"Briefly, yesterday." Hyun-ki turned back to the door. "...Why am I having this conversation with you?"

"Because he's—look, Kennedy-san, he's the polar opposite of the only person you seem to like here. And you're just going to hate the same things about him that you hate about me. Except more, because he's a _lot_."

"Mmm. So he _also_ lies to people on live television?"

"Well…" Nanako hesitated for a second. "No. Not on _live_ television, at least."

"Then, does he watch or enjoy people who _do_? Like _yourself_?"

"Um, he _said_ he watched my show, buuuuuut… I don't think he's really into the 'ghost-whispering' parts. Actually, he's tried to get me to quit a _few_ times..."

"You are making him sound more appealing with _every word_ ," Hyun-ki said, flatly.

Nanako rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "You're just going to talk to him because he doesn't approve of my career?"

" _No_ , Mochizuki, I'm going to talk to him because I have hobbies, and one of those hobbies is watching television. He happened to make a show I enjoyed, and I wanted to let him know Him not approving of you is just a nice _bonus_." He tried to shoo her away. "I've already shared more personal information with you than I _ever_ wanted to."

He failed in doing so, though, because Nanako was a bit too surprised to just walk away from a comment like that. Of course Hyun-ki had a _life_ and _hobbies,_ and of course she wouldn't just know those _hobbies_ right off the bat. But, still, watching TV seemed a little too _normal_ for someone like him. Then again… "I guess you _were_ wearing that medical drama shirt yesterday."

Ninety-nine percent of his previous irritation was immediately replaced with bafflement at that comment. "What _?_ "

"You know, the one where… okay, I don't know a _ton_ of English words, and I didn't recognize the picture, but that shirt you were wearing. 'Doctor'… something? I think?"

"What are you talking—" a look of realization flashed across his face, and then he was right back to that irritation. "Mochizuki. _Doctor Why_ is not a _medical drama_."

"Really? It sure _sounds_ like a medical drama."

"It's not. It's science fiction."

"It has the English word _doctor_ in it. I _know_ that word."

"It's not—he isn't literally—it's a metaphor for how he affects time, space, and the people around him when he—" Hyun-ki shook his head. " _Why am I having this conversation with you_?!"

Unfortunately, Nanako didn't have an answer for that. Fortunately—sort of—she didn't need one, as the resident-in-question of room number exited his room with gusto. With one hand, he held the door open, and in the other, he grasped a small camcorder. "Could you guys just have that whole exchange one more time? Now that the door's open and I can get good shots? _Please_?"

Hyun-ki looked perplexed. Nanako looked unamused—and sounded that way, too. "It didn't take you long to get _that_ out, did it?"

"...So is that a ' _no'_ on the re-shoot?"

"What?" Hyun-ki asked. He looked at Nanako, then gestured at Shin'ichi and the camera. " _What?_ "

"Oh, hey, that guy from the kitchen last night," Shin'ichi said, completely ignoring Hyun-ki's twelve different implied questions. "I hope you're not camera shy, because you're both on the air, baby!"

"We _are_?" asked Nanako.

"Well, you _will_ be. Maybe." Shin'ichi looked thoughtful for a moment, then raised the camcorder to his face. "...With some _light_ edits, of course. For now you're just going to be on this thirty-two gig memory card—which only holds forty hours of high-def footage. So chop chop, you two! Give me something film-worthy!"

Nanako looked around. "You know, Chishin, I don't know if you're actually going to get anything film-worthy when your backdrop is a hallway."

"Why is _that_ your primary concern, Mochizuki?"

"He _did_ say he only had forty hours of space available. Every second counts, Kennedy-san."

" _What_?" asked Hyun-ki, and Nanako couldn't help but wonder if her desensitization to Shin'ichi's usual nonsense was what it was like to be on the other end of the exchange she'd had with Saito that morning. She enjoyed it a little more than she thought she would.

"See! This is exactly what I'm talking about! Back-and-forth, just like that—ah, but don't look directly at the camera, Kennedy-kun."

"No, _you_ —" Hyun-ki moved his hand up to block the lens of the camera. "Why are you filming us? Why are you filming _anything_?"

Shin'ichi withdrew the camcorder, though Nanako had a sneaking suspicion it was to protect his beloved possession rather than out of any genuine response to Hyun-ki's protests. "Because it's my _job_?"

"It's your job to film us?" asked Hyun-ki.

"It's my _job_ to bring quality television to the fine people of Japan," Shin'ichi answered. "And _this_ is shaping up to be a fine… well…" again, he looked thoughtful. "My initial thoughts yesterday were 'waking up in a library with a shrine maiden _has_ to end up as _some_ kind of surreal mystery-comedy,' but recent events have been steering me more towards the horror-drama angle."

"You're _kidding_."

He was _not_ , Nanako knew.

"I am _not_ ," Shin'ichi said. "Okay, so I ran this pitch by Nanako yesterday, but it's gotten better since then. _Picture_ it…"

Hyun-ki did not look like he particularly _wanted_ to picture it, but he actually stuck around, which was more than Nanako could say for any of their own interactions.

"...So, we open up in a strange building. Fifteen students, trapped with some of their belongings and none of their memories—"

"Sixteen," Hyun-ki corrected. "Unless you're planning to stay behind the camera the whole time."

"Wow, looks like you figured that out pretty quickly. And all by yourself, too." The significant look Shin'ichi gave Nanako assured that they all knew the condescension was directed towards her rather than Hyun-ki. She just rolled her eyes in response. "I'd normally make a cameo or some sort of walk-on appearance, but I don't think that's going to fly here since I'm the only one who knows how to film a show."

"I can work your camera, you know!" Nanako protested.

"Anyone can wave a camera around, Nanako. I'm talking about _filming_. _Any_ ways," he turned back to Hyun-ki. "So you've already got some tension there with the memory loss, but then—bam! Attacking crows, raising the stakes! Not only physically, but emotionally! What can they do? Who can they _trust_?" He clapped his hands suddenly. "Bam! First episode wraps, credits roll, executive producer: Katou Shin'ichi."

"Uh, Katou?"

"Please, Kennedy-kun, Katou is for the credits. _You_ can call me 'Shin.'

"Okay. Shin? This is not why I knocked on your door."

"I sure _hope_ it isn't. No offense, but you don't really seem, ah, how do I put this? Camera-ready. Don't worry, though, you've got a lot of potential, we just have to help ease it out in post—"

"I _literally_ just wanted to ask about _The Flower of Shimane,_ " Hyun-ki finally got out. "I liked it, I found out the person who made it was here, and I wanted to tell you. That's _it_."

"Wait, _you_ liked that?" Nanako couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, Nanako, you _wound_ me!" said Shin'ichi, without a trace of legitimate hurt in his voice.

"You know what I mean, Chishin. That was the NHK's morning drama a few years back, wasn't it? It had a pretty clear target demographic, and…" Hyun-ki was not part of it, to say the least. "It wasn't really like your Doctor Science Fiction show."

"Eh, I mean, there are _some_ similarities," Shin'ichi explained. "Ours was a little more schlocky, little more saccharine, little more… set in 1960s Japan. But there are some crossovers between the themes. The reality of selfless sacrifice, the importance of unconditional love, the power of renewed thinking after a life-changing event…" He waved his hand dismissively. "You know, the kind of stuff audiences eat up. Turns out the NHK and the BBC aren't so different after all."

"Wait," Hyun-ki started. "Do you watch _Doctor Why_?"

"Of _course_. I work in television and it's a notable zeitgeist for four different decades of British broadcasting history. Do I _look_ like Nanako to you?"

"Hah."

" _Hey_."

"She's not a hundred percent wrong, though. _The Flower of Shimane_ isn't your typical scientist's fare. What drew you to it? The writing? The cinematography? The budgeting and negotiation between the network and the studio?"

"No, the—what?" asked Hyun-ki.

"He's just naming everything he had a hand in, Kennedy-san."

"Careful, Nanako, you're starting to sound like someone who actually works in the industry," Shin'ichi teased. "But I suppose it _could_ have been something like the acting. Especially from that _devilishly_ handsome extra during the park scene in the fourteenth episode…"

"It… was just nice," Hyun-ki said, avoiding both their gazes as he did so. "I liked the ending."

"What, where the…" Where the family bonds were healed, where the children were reunited with their parents and prospered in the heyday of the 60s economy with some message about the importance of family and community over materialism? "...Wow, that _was_ a saccharine series, Chishin."

"Hey, they only make the depressing morning dramas every few years," said Shin'ichi. "Besides, I'd take the saccharine stuff over the fake-deep nonsense some of the networks are trying to peddle these days. Film at night and throw in some lines about the emptiness of urban life, and for _some_ reason, your ratings go _through_ the roof." He gestured sarcastically, but stopped when seemed to realize that Hyun-ki was still just… there. "Anyways, glad you liked it, Kennedy-kun. Always happy to meet a fan—it means I'm doing something right!"

"A… fan?" Hyun-ki repeated.

"I mean, that's what _I'd_ call someone who enjoyed something," Shin'ichi said. "You know. Some people are fans of reality television, some people are fans of shows that are halfway-decent. And it looks like _you_ are in the latter category, Kennedy-kun."

"I understand what a fan _is,_ Shin. I just don't know if enjoying _one_ of your shows would make _me_ one."

"Wait, that's the only one?" asked Nanako. "You like Doctor Science Fiction, but not… Chishin, what was the one set on another planet? With that movie star guy as the main character?"

"Awww, Nanako, you almost remembered!" said Shin'ichi. "You're talking about _Akira and the Twelve Celestial Bodies,_ right? See, I was gunning for that to be more of a _mix_ of fantasy and sci-fi, but the execs wanted to go full sci-fi, and it was my _first_ big project, so I couldn't exactly go and tell the studio heads to go straight to—"

"Wait, wait," Hyun-ki interrupted. "You did _that_ , too?"

"Did I _do_ it? I casted it, directed it, helped write it, worked with set design and music on it…" Shin'ichi signed nostalgically. "Yeah, that was one of my favorites. Just a shame it was only a season-long deal."

"But I don't remember your name from the credits," said Hyun-ki.

"Yeeeeah, I think they used my stage name for that one. You know, what—" Now it was Shin'ichi's turn to look briefly surprised. "Wait, do you just know all the people behind that show off the top of your head, Kennedy-kun?"

"I… watched it through. A couple times."

"The whole thing? Even the studio-mandated musical episode?" Shin'ichi asked, half-incredulous, half-thrilled.

And again, Hyun-ki couldn't meet either of their gazes, though he seemed especially focused on not looking Shin'ichi in the eyes. "I actually re-watched that one more than the others," he said, quietly.

"Oh, _wow_." The showrunner was grinning from ear to ear at this point. "I don't know how to tell you this, Kennedy-kun. The industry-specific term for someone who does that is a _fan._ And here I was, thinking I was only going to be trapped with one of them," he said, gesturing to Nanako.

"You're _still_ only trapped with one of them," Nanako said, gesturing back to Hyun-ki."I skipped the musical episode." Well, she did on her subsequent viewings, at least.

"You are just _decimating_ my fragile ego today, Nanako." Shin'ichi sighed theatrically. "At least _someone_ here appreciates art."

Hyun-ki just shrugged, and Nanako almost felt bad for him—then again, she had warned him that he'd be willfully introducing himself to what could be restraintfully referred to as a 'strong personality.' Still, though, he didn't look entirely unhappy—at least, not as unhappy as he had during their own previous conversations.

In fairness, Shin'ichi had yet to mention Hyun-ki's deceased and possibly estranged mother. So he had _that_ going for him.

"So that's it, eh? I came out here to get some good footage, and ended up finding some good taste instead. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but definitely not the worst thing that could've happened.

"Well…" Hyun-ki started. "I... now that I know, I _do_ also have a few questions."

"That I would be _delighted_ to answer, I'm sure," Shin'ichi replied, looking suitably delighted.

Nanako took that as her cue to leave and let the two of them be geeks about TV shows in the middle of the hallway. She was about to turn the corner when she snuck a look back at them. Hyun-ki was entirely engrossed in their conversation—she didn't imagine he'd be especially sad to see her go either way—but Shin'ichi snuck a quick glance over at her, winked, then immediately returned his full attention to Hyun-ki's questions.

Nanako wasn't quite sure what that meant in this situation, but she sighed to herself nonetheless—it wasn't anything _good._

* * *

 _ **Lounge, 8 PM: Nanako Joins in Game Night**_

* * *

For somebody who quite literally made a living off of the distress of grieving next-of-kin, Nanako felt surprisingly guilty about finishing her second slice of cake that night. It wasn't like she'd had any part in making it or washing up much afterwards, and even if it was just a byproduct of Asuka's most delicious coping mechanism, she felt like she should… do _something_ nice for them. Remember to thank them later, at least.

But for now, she was done with dinner, done with dessert, done with the kitchen—and at a bit of a loss for what to do. She wasn't quite ready for bed, or even to begin the Process that was taking off her makeup and undoing her hair for the second time that day. If yesterday was any measure, her roommate would probably be reading after dinner, and she didn't feel any specific need to interrupt _that,_ so… Nanako opted to just sort of traipse out of the kitchen and down the south hall.

That was, until she reached the open entrance to the lounge, and until she heard Asami's now-familiar voice cry, with audible irritation, " _You gotta be kidding me!"_

So, naturally, Nanako walked inside to see what all the kidding was about, pausing at the entrance to take in the scene. "Kurogane-san?"

Asami, Nozomi, Nelly, and Ichika were all sitting on the ground near the fireplace, around a game Nanako couldn't quite make out. Asami poked her head above the other three, and, immediately upon noticing Nanako, picked up one of the game pieces and raised it behind her head as if to throw it.

"...Actually, Tachibana, do you think it's worth the joke?" she asked.

"I don't know what the joke is, Kurogane-san, but I feel like it wouldn't be," Nozomi replied.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Asami placed the the plastic piece down with the rest of their game as Nanako walked into the room to take a closer look at what they were doing.

"To be fair, that probably would have hurt less than the medicine balls," Nanako said, kneeling down between Asami and a much happier-looking Ichika and feeling the phantom pain of fifteen pounds hitting her squarely in the chest.

"The _what_?" asked Nozomi, a bit alarmed.

"Aw, don't worry about it, Tachibana."

Nozomi inhaled sharply, indicating she would probably be a _little_ worried about it, but dropped the subject at that. "...Welcome to game night, Mochizuki-san."

"Game night?"

"Asami-chan said we should all play some games together!" Nelly piped up. She gestured to the board between them all—though she wasn't entirely familiar with the game, Nanako recognized it as Japanese-style Mahjong—and a pile of board-game boxes sitting outside their loose, five-person circle. "There were a bunch in the closet over there, so we've just been playing them all!"

"It's no exclusive event or anything like that," Asami reassured Nanako. "I brought these guys back 'cause we were playing cards last night and had a good time, but you can join in, too. 'Course, most of these are four-player games…"

"...So you can't _make_ me join in like you did when we were with Hikaru-san?"

"Hey, you eventually agreed to that all on your own!"

Technically, Asami was not wrong. But just like Nanako hadn't agreed to work out for workout's sake, she wouldn't be sitting there watching four people play a game for the game's sake. "Well, I'll join in this too. I guess I'll just… be on your team, or something?"

"I dunno if you wanna do that, Chibu-chan! Momogane-chan's on a losing streak," Ichika chimed in.

"Yeah? Well, _this_ chick," Asami said, gesturing to Ichika, "just got one of the best hands in the game! You know, people who play mahjong professionally don't see this in years!"

"It's 'cause I'm good at this game," Ichika said, beaming.

"It's 'cause she's sapping all my luck," Asami whispered to Nanako.

" _What_ luck?" asked Nelly. Apparently, Asami had not whispered quietly enough. "Asami-chan, you were doing bad yesterday, too."

"Yeah, well… I'm good at games sometimes! I might be hitting zero now, but I'm a solid twenty-eighty when I'm playing with my team!"

"So you just lose _most_ of the time instead of _all_ the time?" Nanako asked.

"Yeah!" Asami exclaimed, with maybe a bit more pride than the situation warranted.

"I'm more curious as to why you're playing mahjong with your… roller derby team, is who I assume you're talking about?" Nozomi said.

Asami nodded fervently. "Well, we're not _always_ skating around, ya know. And it's not always mahjong! We're on our way to competitions, or chilling after practice, or hanging out at my place… what do you think we're doing then?"

"Nooooot skating?" Nanako guessed.

"Of course not! We're watching movies and playing games with each other. How d'you think I knew all the card games from last night? Me and the rest of the Jets played daifugou together all the time!"

"And you lost all the time, too!" Ichika said, brightly.

"Hey! Like I said, it was only _most_ of the time," Asami corrected. " _Anyways_ , now that you've used the thirteen orphans to kick my butt _again_ ," she said, gesturing to the tiles laid out in front of Ichika, "maybe we could try another game?"

"We do still have some of the pile to work through," Nozomi observed. "Maybe something a bit less… dedicated than mahjong?"

"Good thinking, Tachibana… Nelly? Mochizuki? Anything look good to you?"

Nelly leaned over to better look through the pile. "Umm… hmmm… Oh, let's try this one!" she said, pulling out a colorful board game marked with a simple, short English word Nanako was nevertheless unfamiliar with. "You just have to roll the dice and move your pieces around the board! And sometimes other people do something to mess you up… but that's pretty much it!" She moved the box to the middle of the group as Nozomi tidied up their last round of mahjong.

Ichika was digging through the box in an instant. "Ooookay! I'll be yellow, with my shirt. Tsukuyomi-chan can be blue, with her dress. Mimi-chan can be red, with her hakama…" she looked Asami up and down. "Well, I guess you _have_ to be green, 'cause that's the only color left. Even if your outfit doesn't work with it."

"What? But—Watari, my _hair_ —" Asami stammered.

"Wait, Chibu-chan's wearing green! Okay, you two can be the green team."

Nanako wasn't about to complain about that command, even it if was… entirely irrational. "So, we just roll the dice, then?"

"Yeah!" said Nelly, and then, immediately afterwards, "well, you have to get a 'six' to start moving your pieces…"

...Which naturally meant that the game took another five minutes to start, and the dice kept landing, inevitably, on the numbers one through five and the girls took turns rolling it. The mahjong master herself couldn't seem to get above a four, leading her to complain that Asami was spreading her bad luck to the rest of them, _too_. Nanako wasn't entirely convinced she was wrong.

It didn't help much either than even when the game finally got going, only one-fifth of them knew the rules—and even then, it was closer to one tenth.

"I used to play this a lot when I was little," Nelly said. "When you land on another person's pieve, they have to go back to the start… or, no, maybe _you_ go back to the start? Maybe you _both_ go back to the start…"

"Nelly-san, I think the rules are printed on the box somewhere," Nozomi offered, calmly. "You can read English better than the rest of us, so you can just check to make sure…"

"It's okay, Nozomi-chan! I—my dad taught me the rules when I was a little kid, so I'll remember, okay?"

If Nanako didn't know any better, she would have sworn Nozomi almost winced at that—but even that was for less than a half-second, as she was smiling gently at the antiquarian after that. "Okay, Nelly-san, if you say so."

And Nelly did say so, and at the end of the day, she did. Sort of, kind of—enough for them to finish the game, at least. Upon which, Asami slammed her hands on the ground in triumph. "Woo! See that, Mochizuki?! Third place!"

"Yeah, only 'cause Chibu-chan was rolling the dice the whole time!" said Ichika, the group's perennial winner.

"Either way, it was nice to play something a bit less intense," said Nozomi, ever the good sport. _Somebody_ had to take Asami's place this time around, but she didn't seem to mind too much. "Though, if it's fine with everyone, I'd rather try something we can begin a bit sooner if we're going to play something else."

"Watari-san, do you still have those cards from yesterday?" Nanako asked. "Maybe Kurogane-san knows another game."

" _Another_? Mochizuki, I've got a _dozen_ lined up," said Asami, pulling the stained-glass playing cards out of her pocket. Nanako briefly wondered if the whole kabuki thing worked out, but decided not to ask seeing as neither Nelly nor Ichika had brought it up themselves. "Watari even let me borrow her cards 'cause I knew more games than she did. And one of those games is real simple, _and_ good for five players."

It sounded good to everyone. Asami was right—the rules were simple, and unlike Nelly, she knew them perfectly. The deck was dealt out, and everyone had place a certain card in a pile between them with the goal of eventually running their hand out—if they didn't have the card, they simply lied about it. And if they were caught in their lie, they were forced to take all the cards in the pile.

And that is how Nanako learned she was playing with three of the worst liars she had _ever met._

Ichika made a huge deal about pretending to look through her hand when she had to lie, while Nelly just grabbed two of the cards off the side and shoved them into the pile while mumbling. Asami looked visibly relieved when she had the right cards to play, and visibly stressed when she did not.

Nozomi was the only one of the four who managed to keep a poker face throughout the entire game, though Nanako attributed that to the calm, shrine-maiden-y atmosphere she kept about herself in general. One thing was for sure, though—it made her _really good_ at certain card games. She was the first one out, with Nanako following soon after, and an eventual three-way tie declared for third place when Asami, Ichika, and Nelly dragged the game on another half-hour by themselves.

"I'm serious, Tachibana-san. You could play poker, if you were that kind of person," Nanako said, standing up and stretching from a solid hour-and-a-half on the ground.

"Yes, well, I'm afraid my work at the shrine keeps me a _bit_ too busy for that." Nozomi gathered up the board games on the floor and brought them over to the closet Musubu had stepped out of on their first day there.

Asami moved to give the cards back to Ichika, who motioned she should just keep them. "But you have to tell me if there's another game night, okay? And Mimi-chan and Tsukuyomi-chan and Chibu-chan—" aww, Nanako was included— "But _definitely_ me, okay?"

"Hey, you got it," said Asami, pocketing the cards. "Speaking of which—Mochizuki, we were gonna grab a snack from the kitchen before bed! You wanna come, too?"

"No thank you," said Nanako, still _acutely_ aware of the cake she'd already eaten. "I have to start getting ready, anyways—all this makeup takes a while to clean off, you know?"

"Then don't wear so much!" said Asami, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm sure you look just as pretty without it."

Did she mean it like _that_? Nanako wasn't sure—in fact, with Asami's propensity for sheer platonic friendliness, she probably _didn't_ —but it sure did feel nice to _take_ it that way. Nanako ended up walking with them to the kitchen, maybe a _bit_ closer to Asami than necessary, then parted ways when they reached the corners of the south and east hallways.

"Good night, Mochizuki-san," said Nozomi.

"Tell Henry-chan I said hi when you get back to your room, okay?" Nelly asked.

Ichika frowned. "Tell him he needs to go and see a real kabuki performance sometime, _okay_?" Well, good to see _that_ was still a thing.

"And try to get some sleep, yeah?" Asami said, before the four of them walked into the kitchen. "Remember that tomorrow's another day!"

Nanako did remember… she remembered very well. As she walked away from them, the reality of the night crept onto her slowly, switching the camaraderie and mild flattery from before with discouragement. There was food, there was water, and the people were nice, for the most part, in this place…

...but she was still, very much, in _this_ place.

* * *

 _ **East Hall, 9:45 PM: Nanako Reconnects with Mystery Inc.**_

* * *

By the time she reached the end of the north hall where room eight awaited her, the sheer "a girl may or may not have complimented my appearance" energy had left Nanako completely, leaving her only with vague melancholy and undeserved exhaustion she probably wouldn't be able to explain away with her pathetic excuse for a 'workout' that afternoon.

...Which she tried not to let show, as four more of her classmates were gathered near her door. More specifically, the space between doors seven and eight: Saito, Asuka, and the Kaminaga twins, all discussing _something_ in hushed tones. Or maybe just politely quiet ones.

The tutor, a foot and some inches shorter than _literally_ all of them, was somehow the first to notice Nanako approaching. "Ah, Mochizuki-san!" The rest of the _behemoths_ turned to her, cutting their conversation off midway through.

"Are you having a good night, Mochizuki-san?" Musubu asked.

"Mostly, yes," Nanako said, which was not a lie. 'Game night' had been objectively fun, even if the moderate distress that came afterwards was not. "How about… all of you, I guess?"

"I am," Asuka said. "I _am_ a little tired, though. It's been a long day…"

"Tell me about it," said Tsumugu. "I was looking around all morning, but I gave up around lunchtime. And Musubu…"

"Mmhmm, I'm the same," she said. "Right about when you, Tachibana-san, and I parted ways, Mochizuki-san."

Nanako nodded in understanding—it seemed they'd all been running around that day. Except, perhaps, for… "Himitsu-san, what about you? You were acting _really_ weird this morning."

"Does my sincere yet apparently-unsubstantiated belief in sapient underwater life _really_ come as a surprise to you, Mochizuki-san?"

"Your _what_?" Tsumugu asked.

"You _know_ that's not what I'm talking about!" Nanako asserted, because that belief did _not,_ in fact, surprise her. "You _fled_ in the middle of breakfast! I saw it, Shimizu-san saw it, Tempura-san saw it..."

"Ah, _that…_ don't concern yourself with that," Saito said, expertly dodging the question by ignoring it completely.

"I'm sorry, can we go back to the 'underwater life' thing? I don't think I really got all that—"

"That's just how he is, Tsumugu," said Musubu.

"Can you at least tell us what you did _after_ that?" asked Nanako.

"...Very well. Until Musubu-san knocked on my door and _kindly_ asked me to join in this conversation, I was in my room writing notes and coming up with contingency plans against the worst possible scenario."

"Without stopping for rest or meals or anything?" Asuka asked, worriedly. Geez, Saito was worse than—

"Shiroma-san kindly brought me food a few hours ago," Saito said. "It was… _unexpected_ , but he seemed proud that he'd made the eggs and rice himself, so I ate it," said Saito.

"Did he draw a face with ketchup?" asked Asuka, a bit less worriedly.

"I—yes. Why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering," said Asuka, clenching their fist in silent triumph.

" _Anyways_ ," Musubu began, "Like I was saying before—Tsumugu and I didn't find anything, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to be done. Himitsu-san, did you think of anything good?"

"Or _realistic_?" Tsumugu added.

Saito pulled out the same notebook he'd had at breakfast, briefly flipped through it, and snapped it shut again. "Define _realistic_."

"If you have to ask, it probably isn't," Nanako supplied helpfully.

"W-well…" Musubu looked troubled for a moment, and Tsumugu looked concerned about said trouble, but they both exchanged glances and quickly snapped each other out of it. "Okay, that's fine. It's only been two days, and the forty-eight hour mark is when search parties really kick up their efforts…"

Nanako wasn't sure if Musubu was reassuring herself, her twin or the rest of them—or even if she was right about the whole forty-eight hours thing. But she could recognize the sleuth was trying, and thus, felt the need to shake off a bit of that looming pessimism and try a bit herself. "Remember what Tachibana-san said this afternoon? Even if we have to stay here a little longer, it looks like we're well-stocked."

"Yes, and regardless of what those terrible bird said earlier, I think we're safe," Asuka added. "As long as I didn't go near either of those doors, they completely left me alone."

"And I didn't get a chance to talk to everyone today, but I didn't get the impression anyone was tempted to… fulfill what the big crow told us yesterday," Tsumugu said.

"Ah, that—" Saito began, but stopped himself from talking just as quickly. He seemed like he was trying to phrase his next sentence as carefully as possible. "Perhaps… we should maintain a level of caution nonetheless… around certain people?"

Nanako assumed the motive behind that statement was decidedly Russian.

"Don't worry, nobody's asking you to be reckless, Himitsu-san," said Musubu. "I think what my brother is trying to say, is… don't be afraid to talk and collaborate with people. We're safe for now, so we're better off working together."

"Believe me, Musubu-san, I don't feel reckless while talking to _you_ ," said Saito, glancing away from the group. "Or any of you, really. But some others…"

"...Could still have valuable information and ideas," Musubu said.

Saito looked back at her. "As per usual, your points are… not invalid. I'll try to keep my mind open."

"Well, stick to what you're best at, right?" Musubu asked, smiling.

"...I suppose so."

Well, it wasn't the high of making any real, tangible progress, or the relief of finally leaving, but Nanako did feel a bit lighter after that exchange. "So… what's the plan, Kaminaga-san?" she asked.

"Which one?" asked Tsumugu.

"Either!"

'Either' was Musubu, in this case. "I'd give it… another day. If nothing pans out by tomorrow night, we'll meet up the next morning and see if we can't all come up with another plan of action. For now, though…" She looked back over at the door to her and Tsumugu's room. "I think I'm going to get some sleep. Good night, everyone."

"I think I will too," said Tsumugu, trailing after her. "See you all in the morning."

They all scattered from the gathering point... except for Asuka, who waited with deliberation in the hall between rooms seven and eight, keeping their eyes trained on Nanako, beckoning her to do the same. Finally, after Tsumugu and Musubu had retired and the door to number three closed softly behind Saito, they spoke up. "Sorry, Mochizuki-san, but I felt a little weird asking this in front of everyone else. Does Tsumugu-san seem… _familiar_ to you?"

Nanako looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, there's this girl here who looks _just_ like him… do you think they're related?"

" _Mochizuki-san._ "

"Sorry, sorry, I _had_ to," Nanako said. "But, no, he doesn't look familiar in the non-twin way. Why?"

"I _swear_ I've seen him somewhere before…"

"Well, he was at the entrance ceremony, and we all _kind_ of remember that?" Nanako tried. "And even before that, he was famous enough to get into Hope's Peak. Maybe you read a… science… thing... he was involved in?"

"I guess," said Asuka, looking and sounding completely unsatisfied with that answer.

"I'm sure it'll come to you at some point," Nanako said, before turning to go back to her own room. She looked over her shoulder at Asuka. "You could try sleeping on it."

"I think that's _all_ I can try at this point…" They still seemed a bit troubled over it, but evidently not enough to knock on the twins' door and ask Tsumugu himself. "Well, good night, Mochizuki. I hope tomorrow has some more answers for all of us."

Nanako did, too.

* * *

 **Hi, it's been a… while! Is this less "Free Time Events" and more "a loose collection of things happening?" Yes. Am I counting them as "Free Time Events" anyways? Also yes. It was enjoyable to write, and also way too long, so I'm definitely going to be scaling things back in the future (I know, I know, but really this time)! That said, there's going to be one more small chapter (relatively speaking, at least; I'm writing it more for the sake of my own silly organization) before the plot comes rolling back, so I'm getting there!**

 **As we get closer to an actual killing in this killing game, though, I'd invite anyone to PM me about any concerns they have or any warnings they'd like me to post. For example, there are a few chapters in the future that will have heavy discussions of suicide and that I plan to warn about in pre-chapter author's notes, but if there's anything else specific, please let me know :)**

 **PS: I'll go ahead and put this here because finding romanized Russian translations online can be a big pain! Viktoriya's "wisdom" in the second part is how your mother scolds you when you're talking with your mouth full. The literal English is,** " _ **when I eat, I am deaf and mute.**_ " **Remember your manners, everyone! :D**


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